gāo
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (in 桔槔) a well sweep, a counterweighted pole for lifting water

Examples

Nóngmín yòng jiégāo dǎshuǐ jiāo tián.
Farmers used a well sweep to draw water for the fields.
Jiégāo shì gǔdài de tíshuǐ gōngjù.
The well sweep is an ancient water-lifting device.

Tips

usage
only appears in 桔槔: a pivoted pole with a bucket on one end and a counterweight on the other, used to swing water up from a well. It is a bound character, not used alone.

Components

radical
wood; tree
is the wood radical, here in its left-side form. A well sweep is a wooden pole-and-lever rig, so the meaning sits under 'wood'.
phonetic
gāo
phonetic element (riverbank)
supplies the exact sound gāo. As a word it means a marshy bank, but here it works only as the phonetic beside the wood radical.

Stroke Order

gāo