捉 (zhuō): to catch; to grab; to seize

Meanings

1 to catch; to grab; to seize
2 to capture (insects, animals, criminals)

Characters

捉

zhuō

to catch; to seize

Examples

猫在捉老鼠。

Māo zài zhuō lǎoshǔ.

The cat is catching mice.

小孩们在捉迷藏。

Xiǎohái men zài zhuōmícáng.

The kids are playing hide and seek.

警察捉住了小偷。

Jǐngchá zhuōzhù le xiǎotōu.

The police caught the thief.

他去河边捉鱼。

Tā qù hébiān zhuō yú.

He went to the river to catch fish.

Tips

usage

捉 is often used for catching animals or in set phrases. 捉迷藏 (zhuō mí cáng) = hide and seek. 捉弄 (zhuō nòng) = to tease/play tricks on someone. For catching criminals, 抓 (zhuā) is more common in modern speech.

culture

捉摸不定 (zhuō mō bù dìng) = unpredictable, hard to figure out. 捉襟见肘 (zhuō jīn jiàn zhǒu) = to be in financial straits (pulling your lapel exposes your elbow — clothes too small).

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (left-side form of 手)

Hand radical on the left — the indexing semantic. 捉 is to catch, seize, grasp — a quintessential hand action. Joins the grab-and-hold family: 拿 (take), 抓 (grasp), 握 (clutch), 抱 (hug). The 扌 labels 捉 as something done by closing the fingers around prey or a target.

phonetic

足 zú

foot; sufficient (here phonetic + semantic)

Right component supplies the sound, with consonant drift zú → zhuō. 足 originally pictured a leg with a foot. Beyond sound, it lends a faint extra image: the hand catches the foot — pinning a runner. The phonetic also drives 促 cù (urge) and 捉's near-synonym 提 — the zu/cu/zhuo cluster all sharing the leg-shape.