挖 (wā): to dig; to excavate

Meanings

1 to dig; to excavate
2 to scoop out; to gouge

Characters

挖

wa

to dig; to excavate

Examples

工人们在挖地基。

Gōngrén men zài wā dìjī.

The workers are digging the foundation.

小孩在沙滩上挖沙子。

Xiǎohái zài shātān shàng wā shāzi.

The kids are digging sand on the beach.

他被竞争对手挖走了。

Tā bèi jìngzhēng duìshǒu wā zǒu le.

He was headhunted away by a competitor.

别挖鼻子。

Bié wā bízi.

Don't pick your nose.

Tips

usage

挖 is versatile: 挖坑 (dig a hole), 挖土 (dig earth), 挖鼻子 (pick one's nose), 挖人 (headhunt/poach talent). The figurative sense of 'poaching talent' is very common in business Chinese.

memory

The hand radical 扌 + 穴 (hole/cave) compressed — using your hand to dig a hole.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (left-side radical)

Three-stroke hand radical on the left — the side-form of 手. Marks 挖 as a hand-action: pulling earth out, scooping, gouging. Same radical anchors 打 hit, 拉 pull, 抓 grab, 挑 carry. The radical pins the meaning to deliberate manual work, distinguishing the digging hand of 挖 from the digging foot of 踢 'kick.'

phonetic

穵 wā

to dig out; cavity

Right side 穵 supplies the sound (wā, exact match) and the meaning. 穵 itself is a hollowed-out cave 穴 with 乙 inside — a deliberately scooped-out space. By adding the hand radical, 挖 made the active verb explicit: the hand that scoops out the cavity. Uncommon as a standalone but transparent inside 挖.