verb HSK 7-9 #36,467

Meanings

  1. 1 to steep (tea); to brew (tea)

Examples

Wǒ gěi nǐ qī yī bēi chá.
Let me brew you a cup of tea.
Tā yòng kāishuǐ qī le yī hú Lóngjǐngchá.
He brewed a pot of Longjing tea with boiling water.

Tips

usage
is specifically for tea - pouring hot water over tea leaves to brew. It is not used for coffee or other drinks. The most common collocation is 沏茶.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Three-drops water radical on the left - side form of , three abbreviated waves marking everything liquid. Here it carries the meaning literally: is what you do with boiling water to brewed tea, pouring it onto leaves. Sits in the same water family as to steep, to pour, to wash.
phonetic
qiē
to cut
Right side supplies the sound - qiē shifting to qī, a regular tone-and-final shift. The 'to cut' meaning of plays no role here; the phonetic is borrowed purely for sound. 沏茶 'brew tea' is the most common compound - the splash and hiss of hot water meeting leaves is the whole picture.

Stroke Order