pái
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to pace back and forth; to wander irresolutely

Examples

门口徘徊拿不定主意
Tā zài ménkǒu páihuái, ná bú dìng zhǔyi.
He paced back and forth at the door, unable to decide.
Gǔjià yìzhí zài shí yuán fùjìn páihuái.
The stock price has been hovering around ten yuan.

Tips

usage
Bound character: it lives in 徘徊 (to pace, hover, waver). Beyond literal pacing it also means hovering around a value or wavering between choices. Learn it as the word, not the single .

Components

radical
chì
step; to walk (left-side form)
Left-side step radical , half of (to walk). It marks as a kind of walking — here, pacing to and fro.
phonetic
fēi
not; wrong
Right side supplies the sound (fēi shifting to pái). Its two opposed halves also faintly echo stepping one way then the other, which is what pacing is.

Stroke Order

pái