抹 (mò): to plaster (a wall); to skim wi…

Meanings

1 to plaster (a wall); to skim with mortar
2 to skirt around; to go round (a corner)

Characters

抹

mò

to plaster (a wall); to skim with mortar

Examples

HSK 7-9

泥瓦匠正在抹新墙。

Níwǎjiàng zhèngzài mò xīn qiáng.

The mason was plastering the new wall.

HSK 7-9

别拐弯抹角了，直说吧。

Bié guǎiwānmòjiǎo le, zhíshuō ba.

Don't beat around the bush - just tell me straight.

Tips

usage

The mò reading is the building-trade word - used when mortar, plaster, or filler is spread on a vertical or rough surface. Key collocations: 抹墙 (plaster a wall), 抹平 (smooth over), 抹灰 (apply plaster). It also shows up in the idiom 拐弯抹角 (beat around the bush - literally 'turn corners, skirt angles').

mistakes

Three readings, all distinct: 抹 smears cream / erases / counts a wisp; 抹 wipes down a surface; 抹 plasters a wall or skirts a corner. The mò sense is the rarest in everyday speech - you'll mostly meet it in trades vocabulary and one idiom.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form)

Same hand radical. The mò sense applies it to heavy work: the broad palm or trowel spreading mortar across rough masonry.

phonetic

末 mò

end; tip

The mò reading keeps the phonetic 末 at its full tonal value - this is the form closest to the historical phonetic. The mǒ and mā readings are derived tone shifts that froze in narrower senses.