抽 (chōu) · to draw out, to pull out, to smoke (cigarettes)

Meanings

1 to draw out
2 to pull out
3 to smoke (cigarettes)
4 to extract

Characters

抽

chōu

to draw out; to pull; to smoke

Examples

HSK 2

你能抽出时间来吗？

Nǐ néng chōuchū shíjiān lái ma?

Can you find some time?

HSK 4

请不要在这里抽烟。

Qǐng búyào zài zhèlǐ chōuyān.

Please don't smoke here.

HSK 5

他从口袋里抽出一张纸。

Tā cóng kǒudai lǐ chōuchū yìzhāng zhǐ.

He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket.

Tips

usage

抽出时间 means "to find / spare time" - as if pulling time out from a busy schedule.

usage

抽 appears in many compounds: 抽屉 (drawer), 抽象 (abstract), 抽奖 (lottery draw).

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical, left-side form of 手)

Left hand radical - the standard side-form of 手. Marks 抽 as a hand action: pulling out, drawing, extracting. Same family as 拉 to pull, 拽 to drag, 拔 to uproot, 拿 to take. The radical is the strongest pedagogical signal that any verb on this page involves manual extraction.

phonetic

由 yóu

from; via (phonetic)

Right side 由 supplies the sound - yóu drifted to chōu through a regular Old Chinese rhyme alternation, also visible in 油 yóu, 笛 dí, 轴 zhóu (the 由 phonetic series). The 'from/via' meaning is incidental, though pulling 'out from' is a handy memory hook.