tiǎn
verb HSK 7-9 #3,245

Meanings

  1. 1 to lick

Examples

Xiǎogǒu bùtíng de tiǎn zhǔrén de shǒu.
The puppy kept licking its owner's hand.
Háizi tiǎn le yī kǒu bīngqílín.
The child licked the ice cream.

Tips

memory
The (tongue) radical on the left tells you this is something done with the tongue.

Components

radical
shé
tongue
Left tongue radical, the indexing component (Kangxi 135). Pictures a tongue extended from a mouth — directly relevant: licking is the action of the tongue. anchors the meaning while the right side supplies the sound.
phonetic
tiǎn
to disgrace; humbly
Right side supplies the sound: standalone tiǎn matches the parent reading exactly with no tone shift. is a less common character meaning 'to disgrace, to be unworthy,' but here it functions purely as a phonetic — a same-sound borrowing rather than a meaning contributor.

Stroke Order

tiǎn