拖 (tuō): to drag; to pull; to haul

Meanings

1 to drag; to pull; to haul
2 to delay; to procrastinate
3 to mop (the floor)

Characters

拖

tuo

to drag; to delay

Examples

别拖了，赶紧做吧。

Bié tuō le, gǎnjǐn zuò ba.

Stop procrastinating, do it now.

他拖着行李箱走了。

Tā tuō zhe xínglǐxiāng zǒu le.

He dragged his suitcase away.

这件事不能再拖了。

Zhè jiàn shì bùnéng zài tuō le.

This matter can't be delayed any longer.

她每天都拖地。

Tā měitiān dōu tuōdì.

She mops the floor every day.

Tips

usage

拖地 (tuō dì) = to mop the floor. 拖延 (tuō yán) = to procrastinate/delay (more formal). 拖后腿 (tuō hòu tuǐ) = to hold someone back, to be a drag on someone.

memory

The hand radical 扌 on the left + 也 on the right — your hand pulling something along behind.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical)

Left hand radical — the side-stacking variant of 手. Anchors 拖 in dragging/pulling actions: hauling something heavy along the ground, mopping a floor, pulling a load. Also covers the figurative 'drag out' sense — delaying, procrastinating, letting something stretch on. Family: 拉 (pull), 拽 (yank), 拽 (drag).

phonetic

它 tā

it; (originally a snake)

Right 它 supplies the sound — tā drifted to tuō, both sharing the same Old Chinese rime. 它 was originally a pictograph of a long snake (later borrowed for the pronoun 'it'). The image is mnemonic: dragging something long like a snake along behind you. Family: 蛇 (shé, snake), 驼 (tuó, camel), 砣 (tuó, weight).