溃 (kuì): to collapse

Meanings

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

Characters

溃

kuì

to collapse / to burst

Examples

敌军全线溃败。

Díjūn quán xiàn kuìbài.

The enemy army collapsed along the entire front.

堤坝溃决，洪水涌入农田。

Dība 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.