招手 (zhāo shǒu) — to wave (one's hand); to beckon | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

招手 means to wave or beckon someone over — a friendly, directed gesture (招出租车, 招他过来). 挥 is a broader, physical wave (挥旗, 挥手告别); 摆 implies swaying or showing off.

verb

to wave (one's hand)to beckon

Examples

招手。
Tā zài mǎ lù duì miàn zhāo shǒu wǒ guò qù.
He waved for me to come over from across the street.
，。
Tā zhāo le zhāo shǒu, shì yì wǒ men zuò xià.
She waved her hand to signal us to sit down.
招手，。
Wǒ zhàn zài lù biān zhāo shǒu, chū zū chē jiù tíng xià lái le.
I stood by the roadside and waved, and the taxi stopped.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

The 招 idea of beckoning and the 手 idea of the hand combine to mean wave or beckon.

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.

扌召招

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒuhand

Sound part声符shēngfú

召

召zhào招zhāo

Same sound today

招 pairs 扌, the hand part, with 召, which gives the sound, to show beckoning with the hand.

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.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 Communication & Speech

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