jiǎo / jiào
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to seek; to obtain by luck
  2. 2 to plagiarize; to steal (archaic)

Examples

Tā xiǎng jiǎo yìshí zhī lì.
He hoped to win a moment's advantage by sheer luck.
寡君周公
Guǎjūn yuàn jiǎo fú yú Zhōugōng.
Our ruler wishes to seek blessings from the Duke of Zhou.

Tips

usage
Read it means 'to seek / obtain by luck' and overlaps with as in 侥幸 ('by good luck'). This reading is literary and archaic; you meet it mostly in classical texts.

Components

radical
chì
step; to walk
The 'step' radical on the left ties the character to movement and going about, fitting both the 'patrol a boundary' and 'go after / seek' senses.
phonetic
jiǎo
to disperse; bright (phonetic)
fills the rest of the character and supplies the sound jiǎo / ; it is purely phonetic, carrying no meaning here.

Stroke Order

jiǎo