废

廢
fèi
verb HSK 7-9 #5,308

Meanings

  1. 1 to abolish; to abandon
  2. 2 waste; useless

Examples

HSK 3
Tā juéde zìjǐ shì gè fèiwù.
He feels like he's useless.
HSK 4
Zhè tái jiù diànnǎo yǐjīng fèi le.
This old computer is done for.
HSK 6
Zhè tiáo fǎlǜ yǐjīng bèi fèichú le.
This law has already been abolished.

Tips

usage
废 is in 浪费 (làngfèi, to waste), 废除 (fèichú, to abolish), 废物 (fèiwù, waste/good-for-nothing), 废话 (fèihuà, nonsense/rubbish talk).

Components

radical
广 guǎng
shelter; building
Shelter radical on the upper-left - depicts a roof leaning against a wall. The original sense of 废 was 'a house in disrepair, an abandoned shelter,' which extended to 'abandon, abolish, waste.' Anchors 废 in the family of building characters with 床 (bed), 店 (shop), 库 (warehouse).
phonetic
发 fā
to send; to issue (here phonetic)
Inner component 发 supplies the sound: fā → fèi with rime drift, but the f- initial is preserved. Heavy simplification - traditional 廢 had the elaborate 發 here. The modern 废 is the 1956 simplified form, borrowed from cursive variants of the original phonetic.

Stroke Order

废 fèi