rǎo
verb #14,323

Meanings

  1. 1 to disturb
  2. 2 to bother

Examples

HSK 2
Qǐng bùyào dǎrǎo wǒ.
Please don't disturb me.
HSK 3
Gānrǎo xìnhào hěn qiáng.
The interference signal is strong.

Tips

usage
Common in 打扰 (to disturb) and 干扰 (to interfere).

Components

radical
shǒu
hand (radical form of 手)
Left-side hand radical, the three-stroke side form of . Indexes in the hand-action family alongside to pull, to push, to hit. To disturb is to put a hand where it isn't wanted: the radical names the meddling fingers stirring up trouble.
phonetic
yóu
especially; fault
Right side supplies the sound: yóu drifted to rǎo via a regular y/r alternation with vowel and tone change. The simplified replaces the traditional phonetic with the much shorter , picked purely as a sound proxy. The fault, blame nuance of happens to suit a verb meaning to bother.

Stroke Order

rǎo