剌 (lá): to slash; to cut (variant of 拉)

Meanings

1 to slash; to cut (variant of 拉)
2 perverse; unreasonable (pronunciation: là)

Characters

剌

lá

to slash; perverse

Examples

他不小心把手剌破了。

Tā bù xiǎoxīn bǎ shǒu lá pò le.

He accidentally cut his hand.

这个人说话很剌。

Zhège rén shuōhuà hěn là.

This person speaks in a perverse manner.

Tips

mistakes

Easily confused with 刺 (to stab/thorn). Note the different left-side component: 剌 has 束 on the left, while 刺 has 朿 on the left.

Components

radical

刂 dāo

knife (right-side form)

刂 is the right-side form of 刀 (knife) and the indexing radical. It contributes the cutting action - 剌 means to slash, slit or rip with a sharp stroke. The radical groups it with 刺 (stab), 割 (slice), 划 (mark out) and 刮 (scrape).

phonetic

束 shù

bundle; bind

束 (shù) supplies the phonetic skeleton, drifted heavily to lá. A faint semantic echo lingers - a 剌 is a quick rip or cutting stroke, the kind that slices through a bundled-up stalk. Same phonetic also feeds 辣 (spicy), 赖 (rely), 刺 (poke) for similar sharp-action characters.