The two armies fought a fierce battle at Red Cliff.
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history
鏖 is not used alone in modern Chinese; it survives in 鏖战 ('to fight a hard, prolonged battle') and the classical 鏖兵. It is recorded from the 汉书 account of a fierce battle below Mount Gaolan. The metal radical 金 evokes clashing weapons; 麀 supplies the sound.
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Literary. It appears almost only in the compound 鏖战 in formal or historical writing, not in everyday speech.
The deer-shaped top is the phonetic element of 鏖, a fuller form sharing the sound of 鹿-series characters such as 麋; the reading has drifted, and it carries no meaning here.
