/ zhá /
verb #15,872

Meanings

  1. 1 to run over (with a vehicle)
  2. 2 to crush; to roll over

Examples

Xiǎoxīn bié bèi chē yà dào.
Be careful not to get run over by a car.
小俩口出去轧马路
Xiǎoliǎngkǒu yòu chūqù yàmǎlù le.
The young couple are out strolling the streets again.

Tips

mistakes
The character has three readings. yà is to run over or crush, as in 轧马路 (to stroll the streets). zhá is the industrial 'to roll metal', as in 轧钢. gá is a Wu-dialect reading for jostling in a crowd or checking accounts.

Components

radical
chē
cart; vehicle
on the left is the vehicle radical, simplified from , a top-down picture of a cart with wheels and axle. It supplies the meaning of directly: to crush is to roll a heavy wheeled thing over something. Same family: to turn, to transport.
phonetic
bend; hidden (variant of 乙)
on the right is a variant of , supplying the sound yǐ which shifted to yà. The single curved stroke also reads visually like the long sweep of a wheel pressing down and rolling forward.

Stroke Order