扪 (mén): to lay hands on

Meanings

他在黑暗中扪着墙走。

Tā zài hēi'àn zhōng mén zhe qiáng zǒu.

He felt his way along the wall in the dark.

扪心自问就是问自己的良心。

Mén xīn zìwèn jiùshì wèn zìjǐ de liángxīn.

To examine one's conscience means to ask one's own heart.

usage

扪 is a literary word for touching or feeling with the hand, most familiar in 扪心自问, to lay a hand on one's heart and search one's conscience.

radical

扌 shǒu

hand

扌 is the hand radical 手 in left-side form. Touching and feeling are done with the hand, so the hand radical carries the meaning.

phonetic

门 mén

door; gate

门 supplies the sound mén, matching its own reading exactly. It works purely as the phonetic element with no meaning contribution here.

扪 mén