拭 (shì): to wipe

Meanings

1 to wipe
2 to clean by wiping

Characters

拭

shì

to wipe; to clean

Examples

HSK 4

她拭去眼角的泪水。

Tā shì qù yǎnjiǎo de lèishuǐ.

She wiped away the tears from the corner of her eye.

HSK 7-9

他拭目以待，期待好消息。

Tā shìmù-yǐdài, qīdài hǎo xiāoxi.

He waited eagerly, eyes wide with anticipation.

Tips

register

拭 is a literary/classical character rarely used alone in modern speech. It appears in the idiom 拭目以待, to wipe one's eyes and wait, meaning to wait and see with keen interest.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (left-side radical form of 手)

Left hand radical, three-stroke side-form of 手. The indexing radical: wiping is a manual action, so 拭 sits in the vast hand-verb family with 擦 wipe, 抹 smear, 揉 rub, 拂 brush. Pretty much any verb you do with your fingers picks up this radical.

phonetic

式 shì

pattern; ritual form

Right 式 supplies the sound shì with no shift, a clean phonetic. 式 originally referred to ritual procedures, and the careful, measured nature of ceremonial wiping lends a faint semantic flavour: 拭 isn't a careless swipe but a deliberate cleaning, as in 拭目以待 'wipe one's eyes to await.'