verb #18,997

Meanings

  1. 1 to bind
  2. 2 to tie up
  3. 3 to fetter
  4. 4 to restrain

Examples

HSK 7-9
Tā bèi shéngzi jǐnjǐn fù zhù, wúfǎ dòngtan.
He was tightly bound with rope and could not move.
HSK 7-9
Bùyào bèi jiù guānniàn shùfù, yào yǒngyú chuàngxīn.
Don't be shackled by old ideas - dare to innovate.

Tips

usage
is often seen in 束缚 (shùfù, to bind/shackle) and the idiom 作茧自缚 (spinning a cocoon around oneself - trapped by one's own doing).

Components

radical
silk; thread (left-side radical of 糸)
Left silk radical, the simplified 3-stroke form of . Indexes in the threads-and-cords family ( rope, 线 thread, weave) and supplies the meaning: binding someone with cord or ribbon, hence the extended sense of fettering or restraining.
phonetic
to spread out
Right - a hand spreading something out - supplies the sound fū to fù. The same phonetic frame sits inside broad, tutor, to grapple, here. Knowing unlocks the whole bó/fù family of readings.

Stroke Order