擦 (cā) · to wipe, to rub, to polish

Meanings

1 to wipe
2 to rub
3 to polish
4 to apply (cream, etc.)

Characters

擦

cā

to wipe; to rub; to polish

Contains the hand radical 扌, as wiping and rubbing are hand actions.

Examples

HSK 1

请擦一下桌子。

Qǐng cā yíxià zhuōzi.

Please wipe the table.

HSK 5

她在擦眼泪。

Tā zài cā yǎnlèi.

She's wiping away tears.

HSK 7-9

记得擦防晒霜。

Jìde cā fángshàishuāng.

Remember to apply sunscreen.

Tips

usage

擦 has many uses: 擦桌子 (wipe a table), 擦鞋 (polish shoes), 擦药 (apply medicine), 擦黑板 (erase the blackboard).

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand

Hand radical on the left - the standing form of 手 with three strokes. It supplies meaning: 擦 is fundamentally a hand-action - wiping, rubbing, scraping, polishing. The radical anchors 擦 in a wide family of hand verbs: 抓 (grab), 拉 (pull), 推 (push), 摸 (touch).

phonetic

察 chá

inspect; examine

察 (chá) supplies the sound, drifting tone to cā. The same phonetic stem feeds 擦 and a few rarer chá/cā compounds. 察 itself is 宀 (roof) over 祭 (offering) - the act of examining a sacrifice - but in 擦 it is essentially sonic; the meaning is delivered by the hand on the left.