拢 often appears in compounds: 合拢 (hélong, to close/fold together), 归拢 (guīlǒng, to put in order), 靠拢 (kàolǒng, to draw near / to come alongside). The core idea is bringing things into a unified, compact state.
Left hand radical (the side-form of 手) — the indexing radical, marking 拢 as a manual action. Anchors it in the gather/grasp family with 抱 to embrace, 揽 to grasp, 抓 to seize, 捧 to cup. Whenever a Chinese verb names something done with the hand, 扌 is usually pinned to the left.
Right 龙 supplies the sound, drifting from lóng to lǒng with a tone shift. The 'dragon' sense plays no part in the meaning; pure sound peg here. Same phonetic powers 笼 cage, 聋 deaf, 垄 ridge of soil, 茏 luxuriant — a tight lǒng-family of related coinages.
