verb HSK 7-9 #2,584

Meanings

  1. 1 to push aside
  2. 2 to stir
  3. 3 to dial

Examples

Qǐng bōdǎ zhège diànhuà hàomǎ.
Please dial this phone number.
Zhèngfǔ bō le yì bǐ kuǎn.
The government allocated a sum of money.

Tips

usage
Common in 拨打 (bōdǎ, to dial) and 拨款 (bōkuǎn, to allocate funds).

Components

radical
shǒu
hand (radical form of 手)
Left-side hand radical — the indexing radical. Marks as a finger/hand action: pushing aside, dialing, plucking, flicking, allotting. Same family of fine-motor verbs: (pull), (yank), (pick), (clap), (press), itself.
phonetic
to send out; hair (simplified merger)
Right-side supplies the sound — fā shifting to bō in (f/b labial alternation, well-attested in this phonetic series). The simplified conflates two traditional chars: (issue forth, the source of 's reading) and (hair). The traditional was with + on the right. Phonetic family: (splash), (alms bowl), (discard).

Stroke Order