锤 (chuí): hammer; mallet

Measure Word

一把锤 bǎ

Meanings

1 hammer; mallet
2 to hammer; to pound

Characters

锤

chuí

hammer; mallet

钅(metal) + 垂 (droop/hang) — a heavy metal head that swings down

Examples

他用锤子把钉子钉进去了。

Tāyòng chuízi bǎ dīngzi dīng jìnqù le.

He hammered the nail in with a hammer.

这把锤太重了。

Zhè bǎ chuí tài zhòng le.

This hammer is too heavy.

Tips

usage

锤 by itself is literary; in everyday speech, 锤子 (chuízi) is more natural for 'hammer.' 锤 also appears as a verb meaning 'to hammer' or colloquially 'to beat up.'

memory

The 钅radical (metal) + 垂 (to hang down) — a heavy metal thing that hangs down and swings: a hammer.

Components

radical

钅 jīn

metal (left radical form of 金)

Left metal radical, the side-form of 金. The indexing element. Marks 锤 as a metal tool: a hammer with an iron head, or in extended sense a counterweight on a steelyard scale (秤锤). Same family as 钉 nail, 钩 hook, 锯 saw, 锅 wok — the tools-and-implements cluster.

phonetic

垂 chuí

to hang down (here phonetic)

Right 垂 supplies the sound directly: chuí → chuí. Strong semantic flavour — 垂 means 'to hang down,' and a hammer's defining gesture is the heavy fall: head suspended at the end of a swing, driven downward by gravity. Same phonetic in 捶, 唾, 睡 — all involve dropping or weighting down.