How to Write 酾 (shāi) — Meaning “to strain or pour wine”

Imagine a beautiful (丽) wine jar (酉) where you carefully pour wine through a strainer to remove impurities. The ‘丽’ part reminds you of the careful, elegant action of pouring, and the ‘酉’ reminds you it involves wine.

Pay attention to the balance between the left and right parts: the radical 酉 should be slightly narrower, and the right component 丽 has two symmetrical halves. A common mistake is making the top of 丽 too wide or forgetting the small horizontal stroke inside the 酉.

酾 (shāi) means to strain or pour wine, while 酡 (tuó) describes a flushed face from drinking alcohol, and 酢 (cù) means vinegar or a sour taste. Visually, 酾 uses 丽 on the right, 酡 uses 它, and 酢 uses 乍.

酾 is rarely used in daily conversation today, but it appears in classical literature and historical texts about wine-making. In modern contexts, it may be used in formal or poetic descriptions of filtering or pouring liquids, especially wine, to evoke an elegant, traditional image.

Common words containing 酾 include: 酾酒 (shāi jiǔ) — to pour wine; 酾滤 (shāi lǜ) — to strain and filter; 酾流 (shāi liú) — to flow or channel.