踱 (duó): to pace (slowly)

Meanings

1 to pace (slowly)
2 to stroll; saunter
3 to walk leisurely back and forth

Characters

踱

duó

pace; stroll slowly

Examples

HSK 4

他在房间里踱来踱去,思考问题。

Tā zài fángjiān lǐ duó lái duó qù, sīkǎo wèntí.

He paced back and forth in the room, mulling the problem over.

HSK 7-9

老先生迈着方步缓缓踱出门去。

Lǎoxiānsheng mài zhe fāngbù huǎnhuǎn duó chū mén qù.

The old gentleman strode out the door in slow, measured steps.

Tips

usage

Often appears in 踱步 (to pace), 踱来踱去 (pace back and forth), and 踱方步 (to walk with slow, measured steps - an image of self-important leisure).

register

Slightly literary in feel - evokes a thoughtful or unhurried gait. In casual speech 走来走去 is more neutral.

Components

radical

足 zú

foot; leg

Left-side foot radical - pictograph of a leg with a foot at the bottom. Indexes 踱 in the locomotion family with 跑 to run, 跳 to jump, 跟 heel. 踱 names a specific slow, measured walk - pacing with thought - so the foot radical is exactly literal: a deliberate step at a time.

phonetic

度 dù

degree; to measure

Right 度 supplies the sound - dù shifts to duó, a tone alternation. In fact 度 itself reads duó when meaning 'to estimate / measure paces.' That older reading is the very same word: pacing out a distance one step at a time. Faint semantic bonus on the sound.