How to Write 戽 (hù) — Meaning “to bail water; to scoop up water”

Imagine a door (户) that opens to a farmer using a large dipper (斗) to scoop water out of a flooded field. The visual of a dipper at the door helps link the shape to the action of bailing water. You can also think of "door-dip" — dipping a bucket through a door to bail water.

Write the left part 户 first: dot, horizontal fold hook, then short horizontal to close (3 strokes). Then write the right part 斗: two dots carefully on the upper left, then a horizontal stroke, and finally a vertical stroke through the middle (5 strokes). A common mistake is making the left radical too tall or forgetting that the dots in 斗 should align neatly above the horizontal.

戽 (hù) uses 户 on the left and 斗 on the right, meaning to scoop water. 戾 (lì) has 户 on top and 犬 (dog) below, meaning to violate or be perverse — visually different because of the "dog" component. 房 (fáng) also has 户 on the left but uses 方 (square) on the right, meaning a house or room, not related to water scooping.

戽 is rarely used in daily conversation today, mainly appearing in farming contexts like 戽水 (bailing water) or 戽鱼 (catching fish by bailing water). In slang, 戽斗 can also refer to a protruding chin, comparing it to a scoop shape. The character is more common in regional dialects or classical literature than in standard modern Mandarin.

Common words containing 戽 include: 戽水 (hù shuǐ) — to bail water; 戽斗 (hù dǒu) — bailer; scoop; (slang) a protruding chin; 戽鱼 (hù yú) — to catch fish by bailing out water.