刈 (yì) · (classical) to mow; to reap

Meanings

1 (classical) to mow; to reap
2 (classical) to cut down; to mow down

Characters

刈

yì

to mow; to reap

Examples

HSK 7-9

腰镰刈葵藿。

Yāo lián yì kuí huò.

He cut mallow and bean leaves with a scythe at his waist.

Tips

history

Not used in modern spoken Chinese; it appears in classical poetry and the bound term 刈除 (to cut away). The body 乂 also supplies the phonetic in 艾.

register

Literary; today people say 割 for cutting grass or grain.

Components

radical

刂 dāo

knife (right-side form)

The knife radical 刂 is 刀 in right-side form. It was added to 乂 to make the blade explicit - a tool that mows.

phonetic

乂 yì

to mow; to cut

On the left, 乂 is the ancient picture of crossed cutting blades and supplies both the yì sound and the cutting idea; it heads the phonetic series including 艾.

Stroke Order

刈 yì

Related Words

观刈麦 Guān yì mài

Watching the Wheat Harvest, Bai Juyi's poem of 806 on peasants reaping in the summer heat

割 gē HSK 6 #2,669

to cut; to sever / to reap; to mow

倒下 dǎoxià #4,263

to fall down / to collapse / to be struck down

打倒 dǎdǎo HSK 7-9 #5,212

to overthrow / to knock down / down with

减少 jiǎnshǎo HSK 4 #4,076

to reduce; to decrease / to lessen; to cut down

裁 cái HSK 7-9 #10,548

to cut (cloth/paper) / to judge; to rule / to reduce; to cut down

关闭 guānbì HSK 5 #2,087

to close; to shut / to shut down; to close down

读 dòu #686

pause; phrase-break in classical text / comma-like pause (in unpunctuated classical writing)

倒 dào HSK 4 #553

to invert; to place upside down / to pour out; to tip out; to dump / inverted; upside down; reversed / to go backward / but; yet; on the contrary

击倒 jīdǎo #6,826

to knock down / to knock out / to strike down