huǐ
verb HSK 6 #815

Meanings

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

Examples

Dàhuǒ huǐ le zhěng dòng lóu.
The fire destroyed the entire building.
Bié huǐ le zìjǐ de qiántú.
Don't ruin your own future.
Zhè fú huà bèi shuǐ huǐ le.
This painting was destroyed by water.
Zhànzhēng huǐdiào le yīqiè.
War destroyed everything.

Tips

usage
is used in many compounds: 毁灭 (huǐmiè, to annihilate), 毁坏 (huǐhuài, to damage/wreck), 摧毁 (cuīhuǐ, to destroy completely), 毁容 (huǐróng, to disfigure).
usage
can also mean to slander: 毁谤 (huǐbàng) = 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