First tone, and a purely physical action: 撩 is to flick up something that hangs down. Second tone gives a different word, 撩, meaning to tease or provoke, which is the one behind the slang 撩妹.
usage
It nearly always carries a direction complement: 撩起 for lifting a hem or a fringe, 撩开 for pushing a curtain aside. On its own, with no complement, it is rare outside the water-scooping sense.
The hand radical, left-side form of 手, marks a deliberate action of the hand. In this reading the hand does the plain physical work of flicking up something that hangs down, which puts it beside 掀 and 揭, both of which also raise a cover.
Supplies the syllable liao, which this reading takes in first tone. The same phonetic runs through 僚, 寮, 疗 and 燎. Its own flame meaning stays out of the way here: nothing is set alight, a hem is simply lifted.
