碴

chá
noun #30,765

Meanings

  1. 1 shard, fragment (of glass, porcelain, etc.)
  2. 2 stubble (of beard or hair)
  3. 3 a quarrel; bad blood; grudge

Examples

HSK 5
Xiǎoxīn, dìshàng yǒu bōli chá.
Careful, there are glass shards on the ground.
HSK 5
Tāliǎ zhījiān yǒudiǎn chár, zuìhǎo bié ràng tāmen pèngmiàn.
There's a bit of bad blood between those two; best not let them meet.
HSK 6
Tā xiàba shàng zhǎng chū yī céng húzi chá.
A layer of beard stubble has grown on his chin.

Tips

register
In Beijing speech 找碴儿 means 'to pick a fight / nitpick' - literally 'looking for a sharp edge to grab onto'. The image of jagged glass shards underlies the slang meaning of grudges and quarrels.

Components

radical
石 shí
stone
Stone radical on the left, the indexing radical. 碴 means a sharp fragment or shard - broken glass, chipped pottery, beard stubble - all hard, splinter-like things. The radical groups it with 砖 brick, 碎 to smash, 砸 to crush, all hard-material chars.
phonetic
查 chá
to check; to investigate
Right side 查 supplies the sound - chá straight across with no shift. There is a faint sense of inspecting that fits the imagery of finding a sharp shard. Same phonetic appears in 楂 hawthorn and 渣 dregs.

Stroke Order

碴 chá