拔牙 (bá yá) — to pull out a tooth; to have a tooth extracted | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A separable verb: 拔 'pull' + 牙 'tooth'. Split it for aspect/tense (拔了一颗牙) and for objects with a measure word.

verb

to pull out a toothto have a tooth extracted

Examples

拔牙。
Wǒ míng tiān yào qù bá yá.
I need to go get a tooth pulled tomorrow.
。
Tā zuó tiān bá le yì kē zhì chǐ.
He had a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday.
。
Bá yá yǐ hòu bù néng mǎ shàng chī dōng xī.
You can't eat anything right after getting a tooth pulled.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

拔 means pull and 牙 means tooth, so the action is pulling a tooth.

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.

扌犮拔

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒuhand

Sound part声符shēngfú

犮

犮bá拔bá

Same sound today

In 拔, the left side 扌 is a hand and the right side 犮 gives the sound; the shape pictures a hand pulling.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in

Medicine & Treatment

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