下沉 (xià chén) — to sink, to subside, to submerge | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

verb

to sinkto subsideto submerge

Examples

下沉。
Chuán jiàn jiàn xià chén le.
The ship slowly sank.
下沉。
Dì zhèn hòu dì miàn xià chén le hěn duō.
After the earthquake, the ground subsided a lot.
下沉。
Qián shuǐ tǐng kāi shǐ xià chén dào shēn hǎi.
The submarine began to submerge into the deep sea.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

下xiàdownward

下 gives downward direction and 沉 gives sinking, so the whole means to sink down.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

下 is drawn as a short horizontal line below a long curved line.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in

Change & Process

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