miè
verb #31,317

Meanings

  1. 1 to despise; to scorn; to belittle
  2. 2 (literary) trifling; nothing
  3. 3 to slander; to defile

Examples

HSK 2
Bùyào qīngmiè biérén de nǔlì.
Don't sneer at others' efforts.
HSK 7-9
Tā yòng mièshì de yǎnshén kàn zhe duìfāng.
He looked at the other person with contempt.

Tips

memory
rarely stands alone - it lives almost entirely in compounds: 蔑视 mièshì 'to despise', 轻蔑 qīngmiè 'contempt', 诬蔑 wūmiè 'to slander'.

Components

radical
cǎo
grass (radical form of 艸)
Grass radical on top - the top-cap form of . It indexes in the plant section, though here the connection is graphic rather than botanical: the three strokes once represented eyebrows in the oracle-bone form of the character.
semantic
wǎng
eye (sideways form of 目)
Middle is the horizontal form of eye. The original picture showed an eye with downcast lashes - a contemptuous sidelong glance. This is the semantic core of 'to look down on; to scorn'.
semantic
shù
to garrison; soldier with weapon
Bottom pictures a soldier with a spear standing guard. Combined with the sideways eye above, the full graph evokes an armed figure casting a withering glare - sharpening 'scorn' into something hostile and dismissive.

Stroke Order

miè