削
xiāo , xuē · HSK 7
to cut
🔪🍎 刂 (knife) + 肖 (xiào, phonetic) = to shave/pare with a blade
The right side 刂 is the knife radical, marking a cutting action; the left 肖 carries the xiāo sound. So 削 is to peel or pare something with a knife, like skinning an apple.
削 — 肖 (phonetic) + 刂 knife radical
削 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the knife radical 刂 gives the meaning of cutting or paring, while 肖 (xiāo) supplies the sound. The original sense was to pare or shave with a blade, which extended to figurative meanings like to reduce, strip away, or cut down.