牚 (chēng): a brace; a strut; a horizontal…

Meanings

1 a brace; a strut; a horizontal cross-bar (of furniture or buildings)
2 to support; to prop up (variant of 撑)

Characters

牚

chēng

brace; strut; to prop up

Examples

HSK 7-9

椅腿间的牚松了，老人用楔子重新敲紧。

Yǐtuǐ jiān de chèng sōng le, lǎorén yòng xiēzi chóngxīn qiāo jǐn.

A broken stretcher between the chair legs was loose; the old man tightened it with a wedge.

HSK 7-9

斜柱枝牚杈枒，撑住屋梁不致倾塌。

Xiézhù zhī chēng chāyá, chēng zhù wū liáng bù zhì qīngtā.

Diagonal struts angle out, propping the roof beams from collapse.

Tips

usage

Two distinct uses. Reading chèng (fourth tone): a horizontal cross-bar between the legs of furniture - chair-stretcher, table-rail - what carpenters call a 牚儿 in northern speech. Reading chēng (first tone): a graphic variant of 撑 ('to prop up'), seen mainly in classical architectural texts like Wang Yanshou's 《鲁灵光殿赋》.

register

Specialist / classical. Furniture-making and traditional architecture preserve the word; everyday Chinese uses 撑 (prop) and 横档 (cross-rail). Dictionaries record both chēng and chèng - they distinguish noun vs verb usage.

Components

radical

牙 yá

tooth; tusk; tenon

Bottom 牙 (Kangxi #92, tooth / tusk) - the radical here doubles as a hint at carpentry joints: a tooth-shaped tenon (榫) is exactly what holds a stretcher in place. Indexes 牚 in radical-browse mode.

phonetic

尚 shàng

still; esteem

Top 尚 supplies the sound - the same phonetic that drives 撑 when paired with the hand radical. The reading drifts from shàng to chēng/chèng through old t-/c- alternation.