缴 (jiǎo): to hand in; to hand over; to pay

Meanings

1 to hand in; to hand over; to pay
2 to capture (weapons); to seize

Characters

缴

jiǎo

to hand in; to pay; to seize

Examples

HSK 4

请按时缴纳水电费。

Qǐng ànshí jiǎonà shuǐdiànfèi.

Please pay the water and electricity bills on time.

HSK 7-9

敌人被迫缴械投降。

Dírén bèipò jiǎoxiè tóuxiáng.

The enemy was forced to surrender their weapons.

Tips

usage

Common compounds: 缴费 (pay a fee), 缴税 (pay tax), 缴纳 (pay/submit), 缴械 (disarm/surrender weapons). The 'pay' and 'seize' meanings come from the same idea of handing something over.

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk (radical form of 糸)

Three-stroke silk radical on the left, side form of 糸. The original sense of 缴 was a silk cord attached to an arrow so the hunter could retrieve it - pure silk-thread imagery. From there came the modern meanings of paying in and surrendering weapons.

phonetic

敫 jiǎo

bright; shining (here phonetic)

Right side 敫 supplies the sound - jiǎo read straight across with no shift. Same phonetic appears in 激 to surge, 檄 official summons, 徼 frontier - a small but tight phonetic family. 敫 itself decomposes further into 白 + 放 but functions as one phonetic unit.