huǐ
verb HSK 6 #815

Meanings

  1. 1 to destroy; to ruin; to demolish
  2. 2 to slander; to defame

Examples

HSK 4
Bié huǐ le zìjǐ de qiántú.
Don't ruin your own future.
HSK 5
Zhè fú huà bèi shuǐ huǐ le.
This painting was destroyed by water.
HSK 7-9
Dàhuǒ huǐ le zhěng dòng lóu.
The fire destroyed the entire building.

Tips

usage
is used in many compounds: 毁灭 (to annihilate), 毁坏 (to damage/wreck), 摧毁 (to destroy completely), 毁容 (to disfigure).
usage
can also mean to slander: 毁谤 = to defame. Destroying someone's reputation.

Components

radical
shū
weapon; cudgel
Right is the dagger-axe / cudgel radical, the indexing component of . A hand gripping a long-handled blunt weapon. Same radical-family of striking-and-beating chars: to beat, section (struck off), abundant (originally a striking gesture). Combines with mortar and labor to give the full picture: workman with weapon smashing things in a stone basin.
semantic
jiù
mortar
Upper-left is the mortar - a wide stone basin with grain inside. In it carries the sense of grinding or pulverising: something put into the mortar to be smashed. The pictographic feel of crushing under stone anchors the destruction sense. Indexed under Kangxi #79 (shū, spear-shaft) via the striking weapon right.
semantic
gōng
work; labor
Lower-left - a carpenter's square or pestle in profile, signifying tool-handling and human labor. Sandwiched between mortar above and weapon to the right, it adds the active workman element: someone deliberately at work breaking things. Pure semantic - supplies no sound.

Stroke Order

huǐ