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折

zhē / zhé / shé
verb #4,804

Meanings

  1. 1 to turn over; to tip over; to pour from one container to another
  2. 2 to toss about; to make a fuss; to keep redoing

Examples

HSK 2
小孩在床上折跟头。
Xiǎohái zài chuáng shàng zhē gēntou.
The kid was doing somersaults on the bed.
HSK 6
把热水在两个杯子里折一折，就凉了。
Bǎ rèshuǐ zài liǎng gè bēizi lǐ zhē yi zhē, jiù liáng le.
Pour the hot water back and forth between the cups to cool it down.
HSK 7-9
你别再折腾我了，我累死了。
Nǐ bié zài zhēteng wǒ le, wǒ lèi sǐ le.
Don't toss me about anymore - I'm exhausted.

Tips

usage
The zhē reading is fully colloquial and motion-heavy: think "flip it back and forth." Its star compound is 折腾 - by far the most useful word in this reading. It can mean: (1) toss and turn in bed; (2) keep redoing the same thing; (3) put someone through the wringer; (4) waste energy on pointless effort. Steve Jobs-style "stay foolish" energy: 瞎折腾 = pointless faffing about.
memory
Quick rule for the three readings: if the verb describes a controlled action (zhé), a clean snap or business loss (shé), or chaotic back-and-forth motion (zhē), the tone matches the energy: rising zhé for the calm fold, rising-high shé for the sudden break, and flat zhē for the back-and-forth tossing.

Components

radical
扌 shǒu
hand (left-side radical)
Left hand radical - three strokes, the compressed left-side form of 手. Anchors 折 in the verbs-of-the-hand family alongside 打 (hit), 拿 (take), 推 (push), 抓 (grab). Sets the action: a hand doing something to wood - specifically, here, a hand swinging an axe.
semantic
斤 jīn
axe; catty
Right axe component - pictograph of a hafted axe-head (the same 斤 used as a weight unit, 'catty', because axes were once standard weights). Compound ideograph: hand (扌) + axe (斤) = breaking wood with a blade, hence 'to break, snap, fold'. From the snap-an-arrow image came 'discount' (a deduction = a snapped-off piece) and 'setback' (something broken).

Stroke Order

折 zhē