捆 (kǔn): to tie up; to bundle

Meanings

1 to tie up; to bundle
2 a bundle (measure word)

Characters

捆

kun

to tie up; to bundle

Examples

把这些报纸捆起来。

Bǎ zhèxiē bàozhǐ kǔn qǐlái.

Bundle up these newspapers.

他买了一捆柴火。

Tā mǎi le yīkǔn cháihuǒ.

He bought a bundle of firewood.

小偷被捆住了手脚。

Xiǎotōu bèi kǔn zhù le shǒujiǎo.

The thief's hands and feet were tied up.

Tips

usage

捆 doubles as a measure word for bundles: 一捆柴 (a bundle of firewood), 一捆报纸 (a bundle of newspapers). The verb implies wrapping something around and around to hold things together — rope, string, tape.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (left radical form)

Left hand radical (Kangxi #64 手 in its 3-stroke compressed form). Anchors the action: 捆 is to tie up, bind, bundle — a hand gathering and securing things together (捆绑 bind, 一捆 a bundle). Same radical groups 打 (hit), 拉 (pull), 抱 (embrace), 扣 (button) — hand-action verbs, especially those involving grasping.

phonetic

困 kùn

trapped; sleepy; distressed

Right phonetic 困 (kùn) — supplies the sound, shifting tone to kǔn. Beautifully self-reinforcing: standalone 困 (a tree boxed in 囗) means 'trapped, confined,' which doubles as a semantic hint here — to bundle up is to confine the contents. Same kùn/kǒu/kùn family as 捆 itself in onomatopoeia.