溃 (kuì): to collapse

Meanings

1 to collapse
2 to be routed
3 to be defeated
4 to burst (of a dyke)

Characters

溃

kuì

to collapse / to burst

Examples

HSK 7-9

敌军全线溃败。

Díjūn quánxiàn kuìbài.

The enemy army collapsed along the entire front.

HSK 7-9

堤坝溃决，洪水涌入农田。

Dībà kuìjué, hóngshuǐ yǒngrù nóngtián.

The embankment burst and floodwater rushed into the farmland.

Tips

usage

溃 often appears in compound words: 溃败 (to be routed), 溃散 (to scatter in defeat), 溃烂 (to fester). As a single character it reads as literary/formal.

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form of 水)

Left three-drops water radical - the side-form of 水, three abbreviated waves. The indexing radical, anchors 溃 in the water family with 河 river, 海 sea, 流 flow. Marks 溃 originally as a dike collapsing under floodwater - the picture behind 'to burst, to rout, to fester' (an ulcer is flesh 'breaking open' the way a levee does).

phonetic

贵 guì

expensive; precious

Right 贵 supplies the sound - guì shifting to kuì (a notable consonant change attested across this phonetic family). The 'expensive' meaning contributes nothing semantically. Same phonetic family: 遗 to lose, 馈 to give a gift. Simplified from traditional 潰, whose right side was the unsimplified 貴.