shǔn
verb #16,487

Meanings

  1. 1 to suck

Examples

Yīng'ér zài shǔnxī shǒuzhǐ.
The baby is sucking its finger.
Mìfēng shǔn zhe huāmì.
The bee is sucking nectar.

Tips

usage
is literary. In everyday speech, or are more common. 吮吸 is the standard compound form.

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Left mouth radical - the indexing component. Carries the core meaning: names an action done with the mouth, specifically sucking. Same mouth-action family: eat, drink, kiss, spit, hold in mouth. The radical announces that the right side narrows down which mouth-action is intended.
phonetic
yǔn
permit; consent
Right supplies the sound - yǔn drifting to shǔn via the y-/sh- alternation visible across the same series ( shield, blunt). The 'permit' meaning of doesn't enter; it is a pure sound-tag. is most often heard in 吮吸 'to suck' or 吮指 'finger-licking,' as in 吮指原味鸡 KFC's slogan-name.

Stroke Order

shǔn