离队 (lí duì) — to leave one's team, post, or group; to drop ou…

Definition

Literary/formal 'to leave one's team or post', often used for soldiers, officials, or organized groups. Pairs with the noun 离 to mean going AWOL or abandoning one's post, not casual quitting.

verb

to leave one's teampostor groupto drop out of the ranks

Examples

离队。
Tā yīn wèi shòu shāng bù dé bù lí duì.
He had to leave the team because of an injury.
离队。
Zhè wèi jiāng jūn zài zhàn zhēng qī jiān cóng wèi lí duì.
This general never left his post during the war.
，。
Tā qù nián lí guò yí cì duì, hòu lái huí lái le.
He left the team once last year, but later came back.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

离líleave

队duìteam

离 means to leave, and 队 means team; together they mean leaving one's team or post.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 離; 离 is its simplified writing.

离隹離

Meaning part形符xíngfú

隹隹zhuībird

Sound part声符shēngfú

离

离lí離lí

Same sound today

The traditional form 離 pairs 隹, a bird, with the sound part 离; the simplified 离 is a shorthand. This form first wrote a black-naped oriole, and the sound was borrowed for 'leave'.

Open 离 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 隊; 队 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

阜阜fù

Sound part声符shēngfú

㒸

㒸㒸隊duì

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

The traditional form 隊 has 阜 as the meaning part and 㒸 as the sound part.

Open 队 →

Appears in