xié
verb #69,376

Meanings

  1. 1 (literary) to pick; to pluck (flowers, leaves)
  2. 2 (literary) to gather up the hem of a garment to hold things

Examples

Tā zài júhuā cóng zhōng xié le yì duǒ huā bǎ wán.
He picks a flower from among the chrysanthemums to enjoy.

Tips

history
is rarely used alone in modern Chinese. In classical writing it meant to pluck flowers or to tuck up the hem to carry things; it survives mostly in the literary compound (to gather).
register
Literary; everyday Chinese uses 采摘 for picking flowers or fruit.

Components

radical
shǒu
hand
is the hand radical, a left-side form of , since the word is about picking and holding with the hands.
phonetic
jié
to fly upward; surname
supplies the sound; the reading has drifted from to .

Stroke Order

xié