How to Write 煺 (tuì) — Meaning “to pluck; to remove hair or skin using hot water”

Imagine a chicken sitting in hot water made by fire (火), and its feathers start to retreat (退) and come off easily. This picture of "fire making feathers retreat" helps you recall that 煺 means to pluck or remove hair using hot water.

The left radical 火 must be written with four strokes, starting with the dot on top, then the left-falling stroke, then the right dot, and finally the vertical stroke. On the right side, 退 has nine strokes; be careful not to make the 艮 (gèn) part too narrow, and ensure the final 辶 (walking radical) has a smooth curve.

Although all three share the radical 火, 煺 (tuì) means to pluck or remove hair/skin using hot water, while 烯 (xī) and 烷 (wán) are chemical terms for alkene and alkane. Visually, 煺 has 退 on the right, whereas 烯 has 希 and 烷 has 完, so the right-side components are completely different.

煺 appears mainly in cooking or food preparation contexts, such as 煺毛 (plucking feathers from a chicken) or 煺皮 (removing skin from fruit or meat). It is not a common daily word, but you might see it in recipes or instructions for processing poultry or pork.

Common words containing 煺 include: 煺毛 (tuì máo) — to pluck feathers or hair; 煺掉 (tuì diào) — to remove; to pluck off; 煺皮 (tuì pí) — to remove skin.