滑 (huá): to slip; to slide

Meanings

1 to slip; to slide
2 slippery; smooth
3 cunning; crafty

Characters

滑

huá

slippery; smooth; to slide

Examples

地上很滑，小心别摔倒。

Dìshàng hěn huá, xiǎoxīn bié shuāidǎo.

The ground is slippery, be careful not to fall.

他从楼梯上滑了下来。

Tā cóng lóutī shàng huá le xiàlái.

He slid down the stairs.

这个人很滑，不好对付。

Zhège rén hěn huá, bùhǎo duìfu.

This person is very cunning, hard to deal with.

孩子们在冰上滑来滑去。

Háizi men zài bīngshàng huá lái huá qù.

The children slid back and forth on the ice.

Tips

usage

滑 appears in many sports: 滑冰 (ice skating), 滑雪 (skiing), 滑板 (skateboarding). The core meaning is smooth, gliding motion.

usage

滑稽 (huájī) means 'funny/comical' — a surprisingly common compound. 光滑 (guānghuá) means 'smooth and glossy.'

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (left-side form)

Three drops of water on the left — the contracted side-form of 水. Anchors 滑 in the liquid family alongside 河, 海, 油, 汤. A wet surface is the prototype of slippery, so the radical carries the meaning directly: water is what makes things slide.

phonetic

骨 gǔ

bone

Right component supplies the sound: 骨 gǔ → huá through Old Chinese sound shift in the velars. 骨 also adds a faint semantic flavour — the smoothness of a polished bone, or the way joints glide. Same phonetic in 猾 huá (cunning), reinforcing the 'slippery / crafty' sense extended in 狡滑.