to block up (a road, pipe etc)

to stop up (a hole); (fig.) (of a person) choked up with anxiety or stress; wall (literary); (classifier for walls)

earth (土) + phonetic (者) = blocked, stopped up

A wall of earth piled up to seal a passage — the soil radical grounds the idea of physical blockage. 者 is there for the sound dǔ, not the meaning.

+
EarthSemantic
PersonPhonetic

路上车,我们迟到了。

lù shang dǔ chē, wǒ men chí dào le。

The road was blocked with traffic, so we were late.

这件事让我心里很,睡不好觉。

zhè jiàn shì ràng wǒ xīn lǐ hěn dǔ, shuì bù hǎo jiào。

This matter has left me feeling choked up inside, and I can't sleep well.

Words with 堵

防堵

fáng dǔ

to prevent

阿堵

ē dǔ

(literary) (colloquial term of the Six Dynasties period 六朝[Liu4 Chao2]) this

阿堵物

ē dǔ wù

(literary) (euphemism) money (literally, "this thing")

七堵

qī dǔ

see 七堵區|七堵区[Qi1 du3 Qu1]

七堵区

qī dǔ qū

Qidu, a district of Keelung City 基隆市[Ji1 long2 Shi4], Taiwan

交通堵塞

jiāo tōng dǔ sè

road congestion; traffic jam

回堵

huí dǔ

traffic backup

围堵

wéi dǔ

to blockade

堵住

dǔ zhù

to block up

堵塞

dǔ sè

to clog up

堵塞费

dǔ sè fèi

traffic congestion fee

堵床上

dǔ chuáng shàng

(coll.) to catch an adulterous couple in the act

More characters with 土