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镂

鏤
lòu
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to engrave; to carve (in metal, jade, or wood)
  2. 2 hard steel

Examples

HSK 7-9
锲而不舍，金石可镂。
Qièérbùshě, jīnshí kě lòu.
Keep chiseling without giving up, and even metal and stone can be carved.
HSK 7-9
屏风上镂着镂空的龙凤花纹。
Píngfēng shàng lòu zhe lòukōng de lóngfèng huāwén.
The screen is carved with openwork dragon-and-phoenix patterns.

Tips

history
镂 is famous from the line 锲而不舍，金石可镂 in the classical text 荀子: keep at it and even metal and stone can be carved. Today most common in 镂空 ('openwork, hollowed-out carving').

Components

radical
钅 jīn
metal
钅 is the metal radical, the left-side form of 金. Engraving is done with a hard metal tool, and the oldest sense of 镂 was a kind of hard steel itself.
phonetic
娄 lóu
phonetic element
娄 supplies the sound, shifted from lóu to lòu. The same phonetic appears in 搂 and 篓, a family of 娄-sound characters.

Stroke Order

镂 lòu