zhà
verb #13,144

Meanings

  1. 1 to cheat
  2. 2 to swindle
  3. 3 to pretend
  4. 4 to feign
  5. 5 to bluff

Examples

Tā zhà le wǒ yīqiān kuài qián.
He swindled me out of a thousand yuan.

Tips

usage
Often appears in compounds: 欺诈 (fraud), 诈骗 (to scam), (to feign death).

Components

radical
yán
speech; words
Speech radical on the left, the indexing component and a contracted form of . It pegs firmly as a verbal act — words used to cheat — and groups it with other speech-based deception verbs: lie, trick (no but related), rumour, mock.
phonetic
zhà
suddenly; for the first time
Right side zhà supplies the sound exactly — same syllable, same tone. The same phonetic powers a tight zhà family: explode, squeeze, grasshopper. Once you can read zhà on sight, the entire family pinyin locks in. Meaning here is purely sound.

Stroke Order

zhà