fèi
verb HSK 7-9 #5,308

Meanings

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

Examples

Zhè tiáo fǎlǜ yǐjīng bèi fèichú le.
This law has already been abolished.
Búyào làngfèi shíjiān.
Don't waste time.
Tā juéde zìjǐ shì gè fèiwù.
He feels like he's useless.

Tips

usage
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 was 'a house in disrepair, an abandoned shelter,' which extended to 'abandon, abolish, waste.' Anchors in the family of building characters with (bed), (shop), (warehouse).
phonetic
to send; to issue (here phonetic)
Inner component supplies the sound: fā → fèi with rime drift, but the f- initial is preserved. Heavy simplification — traditional had the elaborate here. The modern is the 1956 simplified form, borrowed from cursive variants of the original phonetic.

Stroke Order

fèi