摘 (zhāi) · to pick (fruit, flowers); to pluck

Meanings

1 to pick (fruit, flowers); to pluck
2 to take off; to remove (glasses, hat)
3 to select; to excerpt

Characters

摘

zhāi

to pick; to pluck; to select

Examples

HSK 4

请把帽子摘下来。

Qǐng bǎ màozi zhāi xiàlái.

Please take off your hat.

HSK 5

她摘了几朵花送给妈妈。

Tā zhāi le jǐ duǒ huā sònggěi māma.

She picked a few flowers for her mom.

HSK 7-9

秋天我们去果园摘苹果。

Qiūtiān wǒmen qù guǒyuán zhāi píngguǒ.

In autumn we go to the orchard to pick apples.

Tips

usage

摘 for 'remove' is specifically for things worn on the body: 摘眼镜 (take off glasses), 摘帽子 (take off hat), 摘手表 (take off watch). For clothes, use 脱 (tuō).

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Hand radical on the left is the standard side-form of 手, marking 摘 as a manual action. It indexes 摘 in the hands-on verb family alongside 拿 to take, 抓 to grasp, 拔 to pluck out, 推 to push. Plucking fruit, removing a hat, pulling a flower - every sense of 摘 ends in a hand.

phonetic

啇 dí

stem; root (here phonetic)

Right side is 啇, an obscure component meaning stem or root, supplying the sound - dí drifting to zhāi via the standard d/zh alternation seen across this phonetic group. Same phonetic core sits in 滴 drop, 敌 enemy, 适 suitable, 嫡 legitimate-line. Hand + stem-root = the hand action of picking from a stem: hence 摘苹果 to pluck an apple.