/ bǎi
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to split apart; to tear open

Examples

Tā yòng shǒu bò kāi kǎo rǔzhū fēn shí.
He tore the roasted piglet apart with his hands and shared it out.

Tips

register
Read it is an old variant of ('to split with the hands'), seen in classical ritual texts. The everyday reading is in 捭阖.

Components

radical
shǒu
hand
Left side is the hand radical in side form — the original sense is a two-handed outward strike or pushing things apart.
phonetic
bēi
low; sound element
Right side is the sound element; the reading bǎi has drifted from it, as in related .

Stroke Order