催
cuī · HSK 7
to urge; to press
⏰ CUI sounds like QUEE-ck! Hurry up!
The character 催 has person radical 亻 next to 崔 (lofty). A person standing beside something towering, pressing you to move faster. Sound-wise, cuī echoes a sharp cry to hurry — like shouting quick! at someone dawdling.
催 — person 亻 + 崔 (cuī, phonetic)
催 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The person radical 亻 gives the meaning, since urging or hurrying is something one person does to another, while 崔 supplies the sound 'cui'. The original sense was to press or push someone to act, which broadened to today's meaning of urging, hastening, or prompting.