zhàn
verb HSK 7-9 #13,733

Meanings

  1. 1 to dip in (sauce, ink, etc.)

Examples

Jiǎozi zhàn cù cái hǎochī.
Dumplings taste good only when dipped in vinegar.

Tips

memory
The character has (grass) on top and on the bottom. Think of dipping a grass brush into liquid. The most common collocations are (dip in sauce) and (dip in vinegar).

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; plant (top radical)
Top grass radical — the indexing component, even though is not strictly botanical. The radical likely entered via the underlying phonetic, which historically involved offering with herbs at sacrificial rites. Modern means 'to dip (into sauce / ink),' and the cap survives from that ritual origin.
phonetic
jiào
sacrificial libation (here phonetic)
Bottom supplies the sound — jiào shifts to zhàn through a long but attested phonetic drift in this family. itself is wine-jar plus phonetic, originally 'pouring wine at a Taoist ritual.' Treat the bottom block as a sound clue; the modern dipping sense comes entirely from 's surface combination.

Stroke Order

zhàn