磨 (mó): to rub; to grind; to polish; to…

Meanings

1 to rub; to grind; to polish; to sharpen
2 to wear down; to erode; to die out (over time)
3 to dawdle; to waste time (colloquial)
4 to pester; to nag

Characters

磨

mó

to grind; to polish; to wear down

Examples

他在磨刀。

Tā zài mó dāo.

He is sharpening a knife.

时间磨平了伤痛。

Shíjiān mó píng le shāngtòng.

Time has worn away the pain.

别磨了，快点走吧!

Bié mó le, kuàidiǎn zǒu ba!

Stop dawdling, let's go!

磨练意志需要时间。

Móliàn yìzhì xūyào shíjiān.

Tempering one's willpower takes time.

Tips

usage

Default reading mó covers all the verb senses: physical grinding (磨刀 sharpen a blade), figurative wearing-down (磨练 temper, 折磨 torment), and the colloquial 'dawdle / pester' sense (磨蹭). Distinguished from its homophone 摩 (hand-radical, 'rub') by the stone radical: 磨 is grinding ON a stone.

culture

铁杵磨成针 — 'grind an iron pestle into a needle.' A famous idiom about perseverance, attributed to a story about the young 李白: as a boy, he met an old woman patiently grinding an iron rod down to a sewing needle, and the lesson convinced him to study seriously.

Components

radical

石 shí

stone

Bottom 石 — the indexing radical (Kangxi #112). Grinding requires stone: millstones, whetstones, mortars. The stone radical specifies that this 'wearing-down' action is abrasion against rock, distinguishing 磨 from its homophone 摩 (rub with hand, hand radical). Same 石 family: 砖 (brick), 碎 (shatter), 硬 (hard).

phonetic

麻 má

hemp

Top-outer 麻 supplies the sound — má → mó with only a vowel shift. 麻 itself shows 广 (shelter) over hemp fibres being processed; the fibres were beaten and rubbed against stone or wood to soften them, faintly evoking the grinding action. Same má/mó phonetic family: 蘑 (mushroom), 摩 (rub), 魔 (demon).