shì
verb #27,383

Meanings

  1. 1 to lick
  2. 2 to lap (up)

Examples

Māo qīngqīngde shì zhe zhuǎzi.
The cat gently licked its paws.
Mǔniú yòng shétou shì zhe xiǎoniú dú.
The mother cow licked the calf with her tongue.

Tips

usage
is literary and relatively rare in everyday speech; (tiǎn) is the more common colloquial word for 'to lick'. appears in classical compounds like (a parent's deep love for their child).

Components

radical
shé
tongue
Left-side tongue radical — pictograph of a tongue protruding from an open mouth (top stroke = tongue tip, = mouth below). The indexing radical: is to lick, lap up — the tongue gathering food ( 'an old cow licking its calf,' a stock image of parental love). Same family: sweet, to lick (the common modern synonym).
phonetic
shì
clan; family name
Right side supplies the sound: shì → shì, identical pinyin and tone. originally pictured a kneeling person stamping a seal — 'clan name, lineage' ( of the Li clan). The phonetic faintly reinforces meaning: the cow tending its calf is preserving the lineage. Same phonetic family: paper, to resist.

Stroke Order

shì