毙 (bì) · to execute by shooting, to kill, to die (violent death)

Meanings

1 to execute by shooting
2 to kill
3 to die (violent death)

Characters

毙

bì

to die; to kill; to execute

Examples

HSK 5

那条蛇被打毙了。

Nà tiáo shé bèi dǎ bì le.

That snake was beaten to death.

HSK 7-9

罪犯被枪毙了。

Zuìfàn bèi qiāngbì le.

The criminal was executed by firing squad.

Tips

usage

毙 most commonly appears in 枪毙 (to execute by shooting). In slang, 枪毙 can also mean 'to reject / kill an idea' (e.g., 方案被枪毙了 'the plan was shot down').

Components

radical

比 bǐ

compare (here phonetic and indexing)

Top 比 - the indexing radical for the simplified entry, and also the phonetic. bǐ drifted to bì with only a tone shift. The traditional 斃 used a much heavier 敝 phonetic; the 1956 reform swapped in the four-stroke 比, cutting eighteen strokes to ten. The 'compare' meaning is inert here - pure radical-and-phonetic role.

semantic

死 sǐ

die; death

Bottom 死 carries the meaning unambiguously: death. While 死 itself means 'to die' generally, 毙 specifies a violent or external cause - shot, beaten, hunted, executed. The archetypal compound is 枪毙 (execute by firing squad), now also slang for 'kill a proposal' or 'shoot down an idea.'