diāo

to hold with one's mouth (as a smoker with a cigarette or a dog with a bone)

mouth (口) + sound (刁) = hold something in your mouth

The mouth radical carries the meaning: something is gripped or dangling from the lips. 刁 gives the sound diāo and does not contribute to the sense.

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A phonetic componentPhonetic
MouthSemantic

那只狗着一根骨头跑走了。

nà zhī gǒu diāo zhe yī gēn gǔ tou pǎo zǒu le。

That dog ran off holding a bone in its mouth.

着一根烟,靠在门边想事情。

tā diāo zhe yī gēn yān,kào zài mén biān xiǎng shì qing。

He stood leaning against the door with a cigarette in his mouth, lost in thought.

Words with 叼

叼盘

diāo pán

(of a dog) to hold a frisbee in its mouth

胡叼盘

hú diāo pán

derogatory nickname given to Hu Xijin 胡錫進|胡锡进[Hu2 Xi1 jin4] for doing the CCP's bidding as editor of the "Global Times"

More characters with 口