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

请按时缴纳水电费。

Qǐng ànshí jiǎonà shuǐdiànfèi.

Please pay the water and electricity bills on time.

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.