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

HSK 3

他去河边捉鱼。

Tā qù hébiān zhuō yú.

He went to the river to catch fish.

HSK 5

小孩们在捉迷藏。

Xiǎohái men zài zhuōmícáng.

The kids are playing hide and seek.

HSK 6

警察捉住了小偷。

Jǐngchá zhuōzhù le xiǎotōu.

The police caught the thief.

Tips

usage

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

culture

捉摸不定 = unpredictable, hard to figure out. 捉襟见肘 = 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.