拽 (zhuài): to drag

Meanings

1 to drag
2 to pull
3 to haul

Characters

拽

zhuài

to drag; to pull

Examples

她拽着我的手不让我走。

Tā zhuài zhe wǒ de shǒu bù ràngwǒ zǒu.

She grabbed my hand and wouldn't let me leave.

别拽我的衣服！

Bié zhuài wǒ de yīfu!

Don't pull my clothes!

Tips

usage

拽 is more colloquial and forceful than 拉 (to pull). It implies pulling with effort or dragging someone reluctant.

register

Two other readings exist in casual speech. Read zhuāi, the character means to fling or hurl something, as in tossing a ball away. Read zhuǎi, it is a slangy adjective meaning cocky or full of oneself. The standard reading for pull or drag is zhuài.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Left-side hand radical, the indexing radical. Marks 拽 as a hand action: yanking, dragging, hauling something with force. Same family of pulling verbs: 拉 (pull), 扯 (tug), 拖 (drag), 抢 (snatch).

phonetic

曳 yè

to drag; to trail

Right-side 曳 supplies the sound, with yè shifting to zhuài (a notable rime change). 曳 itself means to drag or trail behind and originally pictured a long line being pulled, a tight semantic match with the hauling sense of 拽. Phonetic and meaning align closely here.