(kào) - to lean on, to rely on, to depend on; near in Mandarin
kàoTraditional: 靠
Translation
to lean on, to rely on, to depend on; near
Word origin
靠 means to lean on, rely on or be near. It is a phono-semantic compound with the 非 element and the phonetic 告 (gào).
- Origin
- phono-semantic compound
- Root
- 告 (gào, phonetic) + 非
Stroke order
靠
Examples
墙。
He leaned against the wall to rest.
。
We need to rely on our own strength to solve the problem.
？
Can you be relied on?
。
Success depends on your own effort.
椅墙。
Please put the chair against the wall.
靠 (kào) means to lean on, rely on, or depend on. Physically it describes something resting against a surface (靠墙, lean against a wall). Figuratively it means to rely on or depend on (靠朋友, rely on friends; 靠运气, rely on luck). 靠不住 (cannot be relied upon) and 靠得住 (reliable) are common expressions. 靠近 (kào jìn) means near or to approach. In casual speech 靠 can also function as a mild exclamation of frustration.
Appears in 1 word
Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 靠.
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