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烙

lào
verb #20,135

Meanings

  1. 1 to brand
  2. 2 to burn; to scorch (with a hot implement)
  3. 3 to bake (flatbread on a griddle)

Examples

牧场主用烙铁给牛烙上标记。
Mùchǎngzhǔ yòng làotiě gěi niú lào shàng biāojì.
The rancher used a branding iron to brand the cattle.
妈妈在锅里烙了几张饼。
Māma zài guō lǐ lào le jǐ zhāng bǐng.
Mom baked a few flatbreads on the griddle.
那段记忆深深地烙在他心里。
Nà duàn jìyì shēnshēn de lào zài tā xīnlǐ.
That memory was deeply branded into his heart.

Tips

usage
烙 appears in 烙印 (brand mark, indelible impression), 烙饼 (griddle flatbread), and 烙铁 (branding or soldering iron). The figurative 'to leave a lasting mark' is very common. A separate reading luò appears only in the historical word 炮烙 (an ancient bronze-pillar torture).

Components

radical
火 huǒ
fire
Left fire radical, a pictograph of flames rising. It is the indexing element and carries the core meaning: branding, ironing, or searing all involve direct contact with heat. It puts 烙 in the heat-and-cooking family with 烧, 烤, 煎. Here the fire is the tool: a heated iron pressed to flesh or pan.
phonetic
各 gè
each; every
Right 各 supplies the sound: gè drifting to lào (and to luò in 炮烙) through the well-attested g/l alternation in this phonetic series. Same group: 络, 落, 路, 客.

Stroke Order

烙 lào