līn
verb HSK 7-9 #12,470

Meanings

  1. 1 to carry (by hand, with a handle)
  2. 2 to lift and carry

Examples

Tā līn zhe yīge gòuwùdài.
She's carrying a shopping bag.
Bāng wǒ līn yīxià zhège xiāngzi.
Help me carry this suitcase for a moment.

Tips

usage
specifically means carrying something by gripping a handle or strap — bags, buckets, suitcases. Compare with (tí), which is more standard/formal. is especially common in northern dialects and Shanghai dialect.

Components

radical
shǒu
hand (radical form of 手)
Hand radical on the left — the side-form of , three quick strokes for fingers and palm. Marks as an action of the hand, joining lift, grab, hold. Carrying with a handle is one specific hand-verb among many in this family.
phonetic
lìng
order; cause
Right side supplies the sound through a wide drift: lìng → līn with both tone and final shift. The same phonetic powers pity, neighbour, tinkle, age — a productive series with much sound variation. here is purely sonic, not semantic.

Stroke Order

līn