In classical texts, the bolt that fastens a door from outside is written with this character.
Tips
history
扃 is not used on its own in modern Chinese. It is a literary word for the wooden bar that bolts a door shut, built from the door radical 户 plus the phonetic 冋. You meet it only in classical texts and set phrases about closing doors.
register
Archaic and literary only - it appears in old prose and etymology notes, never in everyday speech, where 门 and 关门 are used instead.
户 is the single-leaf door radical. It anchors the meaning here: 扃 is the bar that fastens a door, so the door element carries the sense while the rest supplies the sound.
