住手 (zhù shǒu) — to stop (what one is doing), to cease; (as comm… | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A command or report meaning 'stop (what you're doing with your hands)!' — used to interrupt an action in progress, not to tell someone to quit a habit.

verb

to stop (what one is doing)to cease(as command) Stop!

Examples

：“住手！”
Tā dà shēng hǎn dào: "zhù shǒu!"
He shouted loudly: 'Stop!'
，。
Tā tīng le wǒ de huà, zhōng yú zhù le shǒu.
He listened to me and finally stopped.
住手。
Nǐ zuì hǎo mǎ shàng zhù shǒu.
You'd better stop right now.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

住 means stop and 手 means hand, so the whole literally means stop one's hand.

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.

亻主住

Meaning part形符xíngfú

亻Written in full as人rén

Sound part声符shēngfú

主

主zhǔ住zhù

Same sound today

住 pairs 亻, the person radical (written fully as 人), with 主, which supplies the sound.

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

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