The years slipped away in vain; in a blink, hair turned white.
Tips
usage
Almost always seen in the compound 蹉跎 (to waste time / let opportunities slip), especially the four-character 蹉跎岁月 (frittered-away years). Solo 蹉 is rare in modern Chinese.
Foot radical on the left, the indexing radical. 蹉 means to slip or stumble - what a foot does when it loses its footing. It extends metaphorically to wasting time, as in 蹉跎 to fritter the years. Groups with 跑 to run, 跳 to jump, 跌 to fall.
Right side 差 supplies the sound - chā drifting to cuō through an old reading. 差 itself carries a sense of misalignment, and a slip of the foot is exactly that. Same phonetic in 搓 to rub, 磋 to polish, 嗟 to sigh - all the cuo/cha pattern.
