馏

餾
liù / liú
verb #51,867

Meanings

  1. 1 to steam (cold food) hot again
  2. 2 to reheat by steaming

Examples

HSK 4
Bǎ shèng de mántou liù yí xià zài chī.
Steam the leftover buns hot again before eating.
HSK 4
Māma gěi wǒ bǎ liángfàn liù rè le.
Mom steamed the cold rice hot for me.

Tips

usage
Everyday kitchen verb in northern China: 馏 means to put cold steamed buns or rice back over steam so they go soft and hot again, different from frying or microwaving.

Components

radical
饣 shí
food; eat
Left-side food radical, the running form of 食. It survives from the cooking sense (re-steaming food); the chemistry meaning 'distill' grew out of that same idea of heating to drive off vapor.
phonetic
留 liú
to remain; (here) sound
Right side 留 gives the sound liú and is itself the phonetic in a family of liú characters such as 流 and 瘤.

Stroke Order

馏 liù