to scrape the meat from bones

to pick (teeth etc); to weed out

change (易) + blade (刂) = pick and scrape clean

刂 carries the meaning: a blade doing precise, scraping work. 易 is phonetic, giving the sound tī rather than contributing to the meaning.

+
KnifeSemantic
ChangePhonetic

吃完饭后他用牙签牙。

chī wán fàn hòu tā yòng yá qiān tī yá。

After eating, he used a toothpick to pick his teeth.

她仔细地把鱼骨干净再给孩子吃。

tā zǐ xì de bǎ yú gǔ tī gān jìng zài gěi hái zi chī。

She carefully scraped the fish bones clean before giving it to the child to eat.

Words with 剔

剔牙

tī yá

to pick one's teeth

剔透

tī tòu

pure and limpid

剔除

tī chú

to reject

挑剔

tiāo ti

picky

挑毛剔刺

tiāo máo tī cì

to find fault

挑毛剔刺儿

tiāo máo tī cì r

erhua variant of 挑毛剔刺[tiao1 mao2 ti1 ci4]

没得挑剔

méi dé tiāo ti

excellent in every respect

无可挑剔

wú kě tiāo ti

excellent in every respect

玲珑剔透

líng lóng tī tòu

exquisitely made

More characters with 易