拧 (níng): to pinch and twist (someone's s…

Meanings

1 to pinch and twist (someone's skin)
2 to wring hard

Characters

拧

níng

to pinch and twist (someone's skin)

Examples

妈妈拧了一下他的耳朵。

Māma níng le yíxià tā de ěrduo.

Mom gave his ear a twist.

她使劲拧了我的胳膊一下，叫我别出声。

Tā shǐjìn níng le wǒ de gēbo yíxià, jiào wǒ bié chūshēng.

She pinched my arm hard, telling me to keep quiet.

Tips

usage

The níng reading is the hard pinch-and-twist of skin, typically as a scold or a warning, as when a parent grabs and twists a child's ear or arm. The everyday 'twist / wring / screw' sense uses nǐng, and the 'stubborn' sense uses nìng.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (left-form)

Left-side hand radical, the compressed form of 手 used along the left edge. It supplies the meaning: an action done with the hands. The character covers a tight family of grip-and-turn motions: twist, wring, pinch, screw. It joins 扭, 拽, and 捏 in the manual-action family.

phonetic

宁 níng

peaceful; rather

Right 宁 supplies the sound, an exact match for the level-tone reading níng (and nǐng / nìng in the other senses). 宁 itself shows a roof 宀 over 丁, picturing peace under shelter; that 'peaceful' meaning is incidental here, the right side is read purely for sound.