渎

瀆
dú
verb #23,238

Meanings

  1. 1 to desecrate
  2. 2 to profane
  3. 3 to show disrespect toward
  4. 4 ditch; waterway

Examples

HSK 6
Tā de xíngwéi shì duì fǎlǜ de xièdú.
His behavior was a desecration of the law.
HSK 7-9
Xièdú shénmíng shì bù bèi yǔnxǔ de xíngwéi.
Blasphemy against the gods is not permitted.

Tips

usage
渎 by itself is rarely used alone in modern Chinese. It almost always appears in compounds: 亵渎 (to blaspheme/desecrate), 渎职 (dereliction of duty), 冒渎 (to disrespect). The standalone 渎 in the literary sense of 'ditch' is archaic.
memory
The character has the water radical 氵 (indicating the original 'waterway/ditch' meaning) plus 卖 (to sell) - something once pure, now debased - giving the sense of desecration.

Components

radical
氵 shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Left water radical - side-form of 水 drawn as three slanted drops. As the indexing radical it preserves the older literary sense of 渎: a ditch, drain, or watercourse. The 'desecrate, profane' senses are metaphorical - flowing into something casually. Same family: 沟 ditch, 江 river, 流 to flow.
phonetic
卖 mài
to sell
Right 卖 supplies the sound - the simplified shape stands in for an older phonetic that carried the dú reading. Same phonetic frames 读 to read, 续 continue, 牍 wooden tablet, all in the dú/xù family. Borrowed purely for pronunciation.

Stroke Order

渎 dú