刁 (diāo): cunning

Meanings

1 cunning
2 crafty
3 tricky
4 artful

Characters

刁

diāo

cunning; artful; wicked

Examples

他是个刁滑的商人，和他做生意要小心。

Tā shì ge diāo huá de shāngrén, hé tā zuòshēngyi yào xiǎoxīn.

He is a crafty merchant - be careful doing business with him.

这个刁钻的问题把所有人都难住了。

Zhège diāozuān de wèntí bǎ suǒyǒurén dōu nánzhù le.

This tricky question stumped everyone.

Tips

usage

刁 is most commonly seen in compounds: 刁滑 (sly and slippery), 刁钻 (tricky/sharp), 刁难 (to make things difficult for someone deliberately). As a standalone character it is rare in modern speech.

Components

pictograph

刁 diāo

crafty; tricky

A two-stroke graph that started life as a variant silhouette of 刀 (knife) - the hook at the bottom flicks the other way. Borrowed long ago for the abstract sense of cunning or sly, and now also a surname. Indexed under Kangxi #18 刀 (dāo) by tradition, though the modern hook isn't a separable 刀.