遏 (è): to restrain

Meanings

1 to restrain
2 to check, hold back
3 to suppress, stop

Characters

遏

è

to restrain, hold back

Examples

他怒不可遏,大声喊了起来。

Tā nùbùkě'è, dàshēng hǎn le qǐlái.

Unable to restrain his anger, he started shouting.

政府正在努力遏制疫情的蔓延。

Zhèngfǔ zhèngzài nǔlì èzhì yìqíng de mànyán.

The government is working to curb the spread of the epidemic.

Tips

usage

遏 is mostly bound — used in compounds like 遏制 (èzhì, 'to contain/curb') and 遏止 (èzhǐ, 'to stop'). Standalone uses are literary: 怒不可遏 ('rage that cannot be checked').

Components

radical

辶 chuò

to walk; motion (radical form of 辵)

Motion radical wrapping the bottom-left, the indexing radical. It marks 遏 as an action of going-and-stopping — files it with 进 advance, 退 retreat, 阻 block. The semantic move is 'to walk up and check someone's progress', the core image behind 'restrain; hold back'.

phonetic

曷 hé

what; how (here phonetic)

Upper-right 曷 supplies the sound — hé shifted to è in 遏's reading. The 'what; why' interrogative meaning is dormant here. 曷 also seeds 渴 thirsty, 喝 drink, 揭 lift — all carrying versions of this same phonetic root.