抽水 (chōu shuǐ) — to pump water; to draw water | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Literal 'pump/draw water' — extracting water from a well, river, or pipe with a pump. (The colloquial figurative sense 'to tease' is not used at this level.)

verb

to pump waterto draw water

Examples

。
Tā cóng jǐng lǐ chōu le hěn duō shuǐ.
He pumped a lot of water from the well.
抽水。
Zhè tái jī qì yòng lái chōu shuǐ.
This machine is used to pump water.
抽水。
Wǒ men xū yào chōu shuǐ lái jiāo dì.
We need to pump water to water the fields.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

抽 means draw or pump and 水 means water; together they mean pumping water.

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.

扌由抽

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒuhand

Sound part声符shēngfú

由

由yóu抽chōu

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left part 扌 is the hand form, written in full as 手, and the right part 由 provides the sound.

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

水 is a simple drawing of water flowing.

Appears in

Agriculture & Farming

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.