p8nda
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铺

鋪
pū / pù
verb HSK 6 #4,969

Meanings

  1. 1 to spread; to lay out
  2. 2 to pave; to lay (a road, cable, floor)
  3. 3 to make (a bed); to spread (bedding)

Examples

HSK 3
请把床铺好。
Qǐng bǎ chuáng pū hǎo.
Please make the bed.
HSK 4
新闻铺天盖地地传了开。
Xīnwén pūtiān-gàidì de chuán le kāi.
The news spread overwhelmingly far and wide.
HSK 6
工人们正在地下铺管道。
Gōngrénmen zhèngzài dìxià pū guǎndào.
Workers are laying pipes underground.

Tips

usage
pu is the verb of laying things flat across a surface - bedding, paving, cabling, anything spread out evenly: 铺床 (make the bed), 铺路 (pave a road; also figurative: lay the groundwork), 铺设 (lay pipes / tracks), 铺平 (spread flat). The vivid idiom 铺天盖地 (literally 'spreading the sky, covering the earth') describes anything overwhelmingly all-pervasive.
mistakes
Two readings. pu is the verb 'spread / pave / lay' (this entry). Switch to 铺 (see the pu entry) for the noun senses: a shop (店铺, 商铺) and a berth or bunk (上铺, 卧铺, 床铺). Quick rule: action of spreading = pu, the thing spread / the counter spread with goods = pu.

Components

radical
钅 jīn
metal; gold (left radical form)
Left metal radical (Kangxi #167 金 in its 5-stroke contracted form). The 'pave, spread out' sense likely comes from spreading metal sheets or paving stones; the 'shop' sense (the alt pu reading) extended from the metal-fitted counter laid out with goods. Same radical groups 钱, 银, 铁, 锅.
phonetic
甫 fǔ
just; only just; man's name suffix
Right phonetic 甫 - supplies the sound, drifting to pu / pu through historical labial shift. The same phonetic anchors 捕 (catch), 哺 (feed), 浦 (riverbank), 葡 (grape) - recognising 甫 unlocks all of them as a sound family.

Stroke Order

铺 pū