撩 (liáo) · to tease; to flirt with

Meanings

1 to tease; to flirt with
2 to provoke; to stir up (emotions)

Characters

撩

liáo

to tease; to provoke

Examples

HSK 4

别撩他，他脾气不好。

Bié liáo tā, tā píqi bùhǎo.

Don't provoke him, he has a bad temper.

HSK 5

他很会撩妹。

Tā hěn huì liáo mèi.

He's really good at flirting with girls.

HSK 7-9

她的眼神很撩人。

Tā de yǎnshén hěn liáo rén.

Her gaze is very alluring.

Tips

mistakes

Second tone here, and the action is emotional rather than physical: 撩 means to tease, provoke or flirt. First tone gives a different word, 撩, meaning to lift something that hangs down, as in 撩起裙子.

usage

Very current slang. 撩妹 and 撩汉 mean to flirt with girls and with guys, and used alone the word describes someone who knows exactly what they are doing. Some speakers say the first syllable as liāo, but the reading filed for this sense is liáo.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand

The hand radical, left-side form of 手, marks this as a deliberate action aimed at someone. In this reading the target is a person's feelings rather than an object, which puts it beside 拨 and 挑, both of which also mean poking at something until it reacts.

phonetic

尞 liào

to burn (literary)

Lends its sound, with the tone shifting from liào to liáo. It heads a phonetic series with 僚, 寮, 疗 and 燎. The flame meaning is incidental, but it makes a neat mnemonic for kindling someone's feelings.