抱 (bào) · to hold in one's arms, to hug, to embrace

Meanings

1 to hold in one's arms
2 to hug
3 to embrace
4 to carry (in arms)

Characters

抱

bào

to hold; to hug; to embrace

Examples

HSK 2

妈妈抱着孩子。

Māma bào zhe háizi.

The mother is holding the child in her arms.

HSK 3

她抱起了那只小猫。

Tā bào qǐ le nà zhī xiǎo māo.

She picked up the kitten in her arms.

HSK 5

他们互相拥抱。

Tāmen hùxiāng yōngbào.

They hugged each other.

Tips

usage

抱歉 means "sorry / apologetic." 抱怨 means "to complain." Both use 抱 in abstract senses.

grammar

抱着 with 着 shows the ongoing state of holding.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form)

Hand radical on the left - also 抱's indexing radical (side-form of 手). Direct semantic anchor: hugging, holding, embracing are all hand-actions wrapped around a body. Same radical in 拿 (hold), 推 (push), 拉 (pull), 拍 (clap) - the entire manual-action family.

phonetic

包 bāo

wrap; bundle

Right side 包 supplies the sound: bāo → bào with only a tone shift. Crucially 包 also adds direct semantic flavour - to embrace IS to wrap your arms around something, the same gesture as 包 (wrap a bundle). So 抱 is one of those rare phonetic-semantic doubles where the right side reinforces the left.