钻

zuān

to drill

to bore; to get into; to make one's way into; to enter (a hole); to thread one's way through; to study intensively; to dig into; to curry favor for personal gain

metal (钅) + phonetic (占) = to drill through

The metal radical grounds the meaning: a drill is a metal tool that bores through material. 占 mainly contributes the sound zuān (via an older pronunciation chain); it doesn't add semantic weight here.

钅+占→钻
占To occupyPhonetic
钅Metal (variant of 金)Semantic

小猫钻进了床底下,不肯出来。

xiǎo māo zuān jìn le chuáng dǐ xia,bù kěn chū lái。

The kitten burrowed under the bed and refused to come out.

他花了好几年钻研这个问题,终于找到了答案。

tā huā le hǎo jǐ nián zuān yán zhè ge wèntí,zhōngyú zhǎodào le dá àn。

He spent several years digging deeply into this problem and finally found the answer.

Words with 钻

刁钻

diāo zuān

crafty

钻进

zuān jìn

to get into

钻石

zuàn shí

diamond

钻孔

zuān kǒng

to bore a hole

血钻

xuè zuàn

blood diamond

钻井

zuān jǐng

to drill (e.g. for oil)

钻井平台

zuān jǐng píng tái

(oil) drilling platform

钻劲

zuān jìn

application to the task

钻卡

zuàn qiǎ

drill chuck

钻圈

zuān quān

jumping through hoops (as acrobatic show)

钻坚仰高

zuān jiān yǎng gāo

lit. looking up to it, it gets higher; boring into it, it gets harder (idiom) (from Analects)

钻压

zuàn yā

pressure on a drill bit

More characters with 钅

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