饬 (chì): to put in order; to set right

Meanings

1 to put in order; to set right
2 to order; to instruct (in official documents)

Characters

饬

chì

to put in order

Examples

HSK 6

新来的长官整饬队伍，重建了纪律。

Xīn lái de zhǎngguān zhěngchì duìwu, chóngjiàn le jìlǜ.

The new commander set the troops in order and rebuilt their discipline.

Tips

history

饬 is not used by itself in modern Chinese; it lives on in 整饬 ('to put in order') and the bureaucratic verb 饬令 ('to order, by official directive'). The food radical 饣 is historical here; 力 and 人 carry the 'apply effort to set straight' idea.

register

Formal and bookish. Outside set words like 整饬 and old official orders, 饬 is not heard in everyday speech.

Components

radical

饣 shí

food (left-side form of 食)

饣 is the left-side form of 食 (food). In 饬 it is the indexing radical but no longer adds a 'food' sense; the meaning has shifted to 'set in order'.

semantic

力 lì

strength; effort

The right side is built around 力 ('strength'), here fused with a small person-top stroke (standalone 力 is 2 strokes, so the extra strokes are an absorbed top element). It gives 饬 its core idea: applying effort to straighten and correct things.