诈 (zhà) — to swindle, to cheat, to defraud; to feign, to pretend, to bluff
Definition
A formal/literary verb meaning 'to swindle, feign, or trick someone into revealing something' (see 诈出 in example 3). Less common in speech than 骗.
verb
to swindleto cheatto defraudto feignto pretendto bluff
Easily confused
- 作zuōlook-alike(colloquial) to act up, to make trouble, to be fussy or high-maintenance
- 炸zhàsound-aliketo deep fry (usually pronounced zhá)
- 炸zhàlook-aliketo explode, to burst, to blow up
- 榨zhàsound-aliketo press, to squeeze (juice, oil)
- 砟zhǎlook-alike(bound morpheme) chip, fragment (of coal or rock)
- 乍zhàsound-alike(adverb, literary) for the first time; initially
Examples
- 诈。Nà ge piàn zi zhà le tā yí dà bǐ qián.That swindler cheated him out of a large sum of money.
- 诈，。Tā zhà chēng zì jǐ shì jì zhě, xiǎng hùn jìn huì chǎng.He falsely claimed to be a journalist, trying to sneak into the venue.
- 诈。Jǐ jù huà nǐ jiù bǎ tā xīn lǐ de xiǎng fǎ zhà chū lái le.With just a few sentences you managed to draw out his true thoughts.
Origin
Sound + meaning六书liùshū
形声xíngshēngMost 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 詐; 诈 is its simplified writing.
The traditional form 詐 shows 言 (speech) plus 乍 as a sound part; the simplified 诈 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the historical ones.
Appears in
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