piáo
verb #18,623 vulgar

Meanings

  1. 1 to visit a prostitute
  2. 2 to solicit prostitution

Examples

Piáochāng shì wéifǎ de.
Soliciting prostitution is illegal.
Jǐngfāng dǎjī le yīgè piáochāng tuánhuǒ.
The police cracked down on a prostitution ring.

Tips

register
is crude and direct. The compound 嫖娼 (piáochāng) is the standard legal/news term for soliciting prostitution. Both are considered vulgar in casual conversation.

Components

radical
woman; female
Left woman radical — pictograph of a kneeling figure with folded hands. Indexes in the female-related family with prostitute, brothel-woman, maidservant. names the act of paying for sex with a prostitute — a blunt, judgmental classification baked into the script.
phonetic
piào
ticket; slip
Right side supplies the sound — piào shifted to piáo with regular tone change. Same phonetic in to float, to flutter, gourd. originally pictured fire flaring upward; its 'light, fluttering' image quietly fits the casual, transient nature of the transaction names. Vulgar register.

Stroke Order

piáo