Definition
颠 (diān) as a verb covers three main senses: (1) physical jolting or bumping, typically when riding in a rough vehicle (颠簸); (2) toppling or overturning something, often used in a political or structural sense (颠覆); (3) in informal speech, 'to scram' or 'to run away' (often just 颠了). It also has unrelated noun meanings ('summit', 'top of the head'), but those are not covered by the verb part of speech here.
v.
to joltto bump (e.g. a vehicle moving unevenly)to toppleto overturn (a regime, system, etc.)(colloquial) to scramto run away
Examples
- ，颠。Zhè tiáo lù kēngkēngwāwā, chē hěn diān.This road is full of potholes — the car jolts a lot.
- 。Pànjūn shìtú diān fù zhèngfǔ.The rebels attempted to topple the government.
- ，颠。Jǐngchá lái le, tā gǎnjǐn diān le.The police came, and he quickly scrammed.
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