饬 (chì): to put in order; to set right (…

Meanings

1 to put in order; to set right (bound form)
2 to order; to instruct (in official documents) (bound form)

Characters

饬

chì

to put in order (bound form)

Examples

新来的长官整饬队伍，重建了纪律。

Xīn lái de zhǎngguān zhěng chì duìwu, chóngjiàn le jìlǜ.

The new commander set the troops in order and rebuilt their discipline.

Tips

history

饬 is not used by itself in modern Chinese; it lives on in 整饬 ('to put in order') and the bureaucratic verb 饬令 ('to order, by official directive'). The food radical 饣 is historical here; 力 and 人 carry the 'apply effort to set straight' idea.

register

Formal and bookish. Outside set words like 整饬 and old official orders, 饬 is not heard in everyday speech.

Components

radical

饣 shízìpáng

food (left-side form of 食)

饣 is the left-side form of 食 (food). In 饬 it is the indexing radical but no longer adds a 'food' sense; the meaning has shifted to 'set in order'.

semantic

力 lì

strength; effort

The right side is built around 力 ('strength'), here fused with a small person-top stroke (standalone 力 is 2 strokes, so the extra strokes are an absorbed top element). It gives 饬 its core idea: applying effort to straighten and correct things.