chā
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 (dialectal) to cook while stirring (porridge, animal feed)
  2. 2 used in 饹馇, a starch pancake snack

Examples

HSK 7-9
Nǎinai zài zàotái biān chā zhūshí.
Grandmother is at the stove cooking and stirring the pig feed.

Tips

history
has no general standalone use. It is a northern dialect verb for cooking-while-stirring, and also appears in the food name (gēzha), a fried mung-bean starch snack, where it takes a neutral tone.
register
Dialectal and culinary; standard Chinese uses or for cooking porridge.

Components

radical
shí
food; eat
is the food radical, a left-side form of , marking the character as cooking-related.
phonetic
chá
to check; investigate
supplies the sound, with the tone shifting from to .

Stroke Order

chā