掏 implies reaching into a confined space (pocket, bag, hole) to pull something out. 掏钱 (tāo qián) = to pay/fork out money (colloquial). 掏腰包 (tāo yāobāo) = to pay out of one's own pocket.
memory
Hand radical 扌 + 匋 (pottery/kiln) - reaching your hand into a vessel to pull something out.
Left hand radical - the indexing component. Fishing things out of a pocket or hole is a hand-action. Anchors 掏 in the family of hand-reaching verbs alongside 拿 (take), 抓 (grab), 摸 (touch), 捞 (scoop). Signals: this involves a hand entering a container.
Right 匋 supplies the sound exactly: táo. 匋 itself depicts a hand reaching down toward a pottery jar - phonetic plus deep semantic alignment with "reach into a vessel." Same phonetic in 陶 (pottery), 萄 (grape), 淘 (rinse) - a tight tao-family centered on this glyph.
