假手 (jiǎ shǒu) — to use (someone) as a tool or dupe; to make a cat's-paw of

Definition

Literally 'borrow a hand', meaning to manipulate someone into doing something for you so you stay in the background. The preposition 假手于 / 假…之手 takes the person being used as the object.

verb
to use (someone) as a tool or dupeto make a cat's-paw of

Examples

  • 假手，。
    Tā zǒng shì xǐ huan jiǎ shǒu yú rén, zì jǐ duǒ zài hòu miàn.
    He always likes to use others as tools, hiding behind the scenes himself.
  • 。
    Tā jiǎ bié rén de shǒu wán chéng le zhè ge rèn wu.
    He used someone else's hand to complete this task.
  • 假手。
    Nǐ bú yào jiǎ shǒu tā rén lái duì fu wǒ.
    Don't use others as tools to deal with me.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

假jiǎborrow/use
手shǒuhand

假 means to borrow or use, and 手 is a hand; the word pictures using someone else's hand.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
叚
叚jiǎ假jiǎ
Same sound today

假 pairs 亻 (person) with 叚, which gives the sound jiǎ.

Open 假 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

手 draws a five-fingered human hand: the top line is a bent middle finger, and the horizontal lines show the other four fingers.

Open 手 →

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