liù / liú
verb #51,867

Meanings

  1. 1 to steam (cold food) hot again
  2. 2 to reheat by steaming

Examples

HSK 3
Māma gěi wǒ bǎ liángfàn liù rè le.
Mom steamed the cold rice hot for me.
HSK 6
Bǎ shèng de mántou liù yí xià zài chī.
Steam the leftover buns hot again before eating.

Tips

usage
Everyday kitchen verb in northern China: means to put cold steamed buns or rice back over steam so they go soft and hot again, different from frying or microwaving.

Components

radical
shí
food; eat
Left-side food radical, the running form of . It survives from the cooking sense (re-steaming food); the chemistry meaning 'distill' grew out of that same idea of heating to drive off vapor.
phonetic
liú
to remain; (here) sound
Right side gives the sound liú and is itself the phonetic in a family of liú characters such as and .

Stroke Order

liù