逮 (dǎi): to catch

Meanings

1 to catch
2 to seize
3 to capture

Characters

逮

dǎi

to catch; to seize

Examples

猫逮住了一只老鼠。

Māo dǎi zhù le yī zhī lǎoshǔ.

The cat caught a mouse.

小偷被逮住了。

Xiǎotōu bèi dǎi zhù le.

The thief was caught.

他逮了个机会就溜走了。

Tā dǎi le ge jīhuì jiù liūzǒu le.

He seized an opportunity and slipped away.

Tips

register

dǎi is the everyday spoken reading: to grab, catch, nab — 逮老鼠 (catch mice), 逮住小偷 (catch a thief), 逮个机会 (seize a chance). Conversational and very colloquial in northern speech.

mistakes

The pronunciation changes by context. dǎi is for the standalone verb sense (逮住, 逮老鼠). The formal compound 逮捕 (arrest) uses dài, the literary reading. Mainland standard is dàibǔ; Taiwan often says dǎibǔ in everyday speech.

Components

radical

辶 chuò

walk; movement (radical form)

Walking radical wrapping the lower-left, the indexing component. Marks 逮 as a motion-and-action character: catching requires going after. The chase is in 辶, the seizing is in 隶 above. Same radical: 追 (chase), 逃 (flee), 进 (advance), 退 (retreat).

semantic

隶 lì

slave; reach to

Inner 隶 — a hand grasping a tail or body — depicts catching or taking hold of someone. Originally 'reach down and seize' or 'slave (one who is caught and held).' This is the meaning core of 逮 (catch, arrest, seize). Combined with the walking radical, the graph reads 'pursue and seize.'