捶 (chuí): to pound; to thump with one's f…

Meanings

1 to pound; to thump with one's fist
2 to beat; to hammer

Characters

捶

chuí

to pound; to beat with fists

Examples

她气得捶桌子。

Tā qì de chuí zhuōzi.

She was so angry she pounded the table.

帮我捶捶背吧。

Bāng wǒ chuí chuí bèi ba.

Give my back a massage (by pounding), please.

他捶了对方一拳。

Tā chuí le duìfāng yì quán.

He punched the other person.

Tips

culture

捶背 (chuí bèi) is a common Chinese practice — gently pounding someone's back with loose fists as a massage. Children often do this for elderly family members as a sign of filial piety.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Left-side hand radical — the side form of 手 compressed into three strokes. Pounding and hammering are hand actions, so the radical does direct semantic duty. Places 捶 in the manual-action family alongside 打 hit, 拉 pull, 推 push, 拍 slap.

phonetic

垂 chuí

to hang down (here phonetic)

Right side 垂 supplies the sound — chuí read straight across with no shift. A nice semantic echo rides along: 垂 pictures plant leaves drooping down, and to pound something is to bring the fist downward in a heavy arc. The same phonetic appears in 锤 hammer, where the meaning overlap is even closer.