烂熟 (làn shú) — thoroughly cooked (of food, especially meat or stew); sound asleep (of a person); thoroughly familiar (of knowledge, skills, or text)

Definition

Means 'cooked to a turn / deeply familiar' — used with verbs like 炖, 背, 睡 to intensify the result. In modern Chinese it appears most often as 烂熟于心 ('know something inside out').

verb
thoroughly cooked (of food, especially meat or stew)sound asleep (of a person)thoroughly familiar (of knowledge, skills, or text)

Examples

  • 烂熟，。
    Zhè guō niú ròu dùn dé làn shú, rù kǒu jí huà.
    This pot of beef has been stewed until it's thoroughly cooked — it melts in your mouth.
  • ，烂熟。
    Tā lèi le yì tiān, dǎo zài chuáng shàng jiù shuì dé làn shú.
    He was exhausted after a long day and fell sound asleep as soon as he hit the bed.
  • 烂熟，。
    Zhè piān yǎn jiǎng gǎo tā yǐ jīng bèi dé làn shú, shàng tái yì diǎn yě bù jǐn zhāng.
    He has memorized this speech thoroughly — he's not nervous at all on stage.

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.

烂lànthoroughly
熟shúcooked or familiar

'烂' expresses thoroughness and '熟' expresses cooked or familiar, so the result is very thoroughly done.

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 爛; 烂 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
火火huǒfire
Sound part声符shēngfú
闌
闌lán爛làn
Same sound today

The form 爛 pairs 火 (fire) with 闌 as the sound part; this explains 爛, not the simplified 烂.

Open 烂 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

熟 combines 孰 (cooked; ripe) with 灬 (fire), showing food cooked with fire.

Open 熟 →

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