剔

tī

刂 + 易

Definitions

tī (verb) to scrape; to pick

tī (verb) to weed out; to eliminate

Etymology

Phonosemantic compound. 刂 represents the meaning and 易 represents the sound.

Semantic: 刂 Phonetic: 易

About

剔 is a phonosemantic compound: the knife radical 刂 indicates cutting or separating, and the component 易 gives the sound. It originally described the meticulous action of scraping meat from bones, picking out impurities, or using a pointed tool to remove unwanted elements from a surface. This literal idea of surgical extraction later gave rise to a figurative meaning: the process of eliminating unqualified candidates, rejecting defective items, and filtering out undesirable components to ensure that only those of a certain standard remain.

Etymology Hide

Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)

Traditional Modern

Simplified Modern

Example Sentences Hide

他用牙签剔牙。

Tā yòng yáqiān tī yá.

He uses a toothpick to pick his teeth.

妈妈把鱼刺剔干净了。

Māma bǎ yúcì tī gānjìng le.

Mom picked out the fish bones cleanly.

他对食物非常挑剔。

Tā duì shíwù fēicháng tiāotì.

He is very picky about food.

这份名单需要剔除不合格者。

Zhè fèn míngdān xūyào tīchú bù hégé zhě.

This list needs to eliminate the unqualified candidates.

编辑正在仔细剔除文章中的错误。

Biānjí zhèngzài zǐxì tīchú wénzhāng zhōng de cuòwù.

The editor is carefully removing errors from the article.

厨师熟练地剔除了骨头上的肉。

Chúshī shúliàn de tīchúle gǔtou shàng de ròu.

The chef skillfully picked the meat off the bone.

经过严格筛选，剔除了所有可疑的数据。

Jīngguò yángé shāixuǎn, tīchúle suǒyǒu kěyí de shùjù.

After strict screening, all suspicious data was eliminated.

为了保持竞争力，公司必须剔除非核心业务。

Wèile bǎochí jìngzhēng lì, gōngsī bìxū tīchú fēi héxīn yèwù.

To maintain competitiveness, the company must divest its non-core businesses.

Related Characters

Component: 刂

Component: 易

剔