wēi / wěi
adjective #17,387

Meanings

  1. 1 winding; meandering (in 委蛇)

Examples

HSK 7-9
Shānlù wēiyí, méiyǒu jìntóu.
The mountain path winds on without end.
HSK 7-9
Tā zhǐshì xūyǔwēiyí bàle.
He just goes through the polite motions and gives nothing real.

Tips

usage
The wēi reading exists only in 委蛇 (winding; a variant of 逶迤) and the idiom 虚与委蛇 (to feign cooperation). Everywhere else the character is read wěi.

Components

radical
woman; female
at the bottom is the indexing radical, a kneeling figure with crossed arms, the classical pose of yielding. With the bowed grain above, the whole picture is a person stooping in deference, the source of 'to entrust, delegate, winding'.
semantic
grain; standing crop
on top is a grain pictograph, a stalk drooping under ripe ears. Here it pictures a bowed head: heavy grain bending down is the visual metaphor for yielding and entrusting that powers the deferential senses of .

Stroke Order

wēi