xiè
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (classical) a rope or cord; a leash
  2. 2 (classical) to tie; to bind

Examples

Tā bùxiǎoxīn xièlòu le gōngsī de mìmì.
He accidentally leaked the company's secret.

Tips

history
No standalone use in modern Chinese; it survives in the literary binome 缧绁 (imprisonment) and old phrases for a leash or tether. It is the silk radical plus phonetic .
register
Classical and literary only; met in old texts and the fixed phrase 缧绁, not in speech.

Components

radical
silk; thread; cord
The left-side silk radical, contracted. It supplies the meaning of cord and binding, grouping the word with rope characters like and 线.
phonetic
shì
generation; world; phonetic
The right side carries the sound, drifted to xiè. The same phonetic gives the reading of and ; here it lends pronunciation only.

Stroke Order

xiè