蹭 (cèng): to rub against

Meanings

1 to rub against
2 to scrape
3 to freeload
4 to mooch

Characters

蹭

cèng

to rub; to scrape; to freeload

Examples

猫一直在我腿上蹭。

Māo yìzhí zài wǒ tuǐ shàng cèng.

The cat kept rubbing against my leg.

他总是来我家蹭饭。

Tā zǒngshì lái wǒjiā cèng fàn.

He always comes to my house to mooch a meal.

车子蹭了一下墙壁。

Chēzi cèng le yíxià qiángbì.

The car scraped against the wall.

Tips

usage

蹭 has two common colloquial uses: physical rubbing/scraping and freeloading. 蹭饭 (mooch a meal), 蹭网 (use someone's Wi-Fi for free), and 蹭热度 (ride on something's popularity) are very common expressions.

register

蹭 in the freeloading sense is very colloquial and informal. It's common in everyday speech but rarely used in formal writing.

Components

radical

足 zú

foot (radical)

Left foot radical — the indexing radical. Anchors 蹭 in the movement family with 跑, 跳, 踢, 跨. Here it tags the original sense: dragging one's feet, scuffing them along the ground. Modern slang extends to 'mooching' — sneaking along on someone else's resources, scuffing into a meal or wifi connection without paying.

phonetic

曾 céng

once; ever (here phonetic)

Right 曾 supplies the sound céng, an exact match with no drift. The 'once, formerly' sense plays no part in the meaning; pure sound peg. Same phonetic powers 增 to increase, 憎 to hate, 赠 to give, 缯 silk. Originally 曾 pictured a layered steamer, and many of its descendants share a faint 'stacking' flavour.