How to Write 拶 (zā/zǎn) — Meaning “to squeeze fingers (ancient torture)”

Picture a hand (扌) squeezing someone's fingers with a wooden tool until they scream "Za!" This connects the sound zā to the painful squeezing action. The right side 巟 looks like a twisted device pressing down on fingers.

The left radical 扌 must be narrow and tight, while the right side 巟 is wider. A common mistake is writing the right part as 荒 (with the grass radical on top) — 拶 has no grass radical. Also, the last stroke of 巟 is a vertical hook, not a simple vertical line.

There is no known meaning for 㧜 in standard dictionaries, while 拶 specifically means a finger-squeezing torture. 扭 (niǔ) means to twist or turn, and uses the radical 扌 with 丑 — it describes a common motion, not an ancient punishment. Visually, 拶 has 巟 on the right, while 扭 has 丑 (ugly).

拶 is extremely rare today and appears only in historical texts or stories about ancient Chinese torture methods. For example, you might see 拶刑 (zā xíng) in a novel set in imperial China. It is not a part of everyday vocabulary and has no modern practical usage.

Common words containing 拶 include: 拶子 (zǎn zi) — finger-squeezing torture device; 拶刑 (zā xíng) — finger-squeezing torture; 拶指 (zǎn zhǐ) — to squeeze the fingers as punishment.