折腾
zhē teng · HSK 7
to toss from side to side
🛏️ 折 fold/break + 腾 to gallop or churn = restless folding-and-churning, tossing back and forth
Decompose as 折 (zhé, to break or fold) plus 腾 (téng, to gallop, soar, churn). The pair names the churning of someone who tosses sleeplessly or repeats an action to the point of torment. Sound cue: zhē teng rhymes with the constant teng-teng of something never settling.
折 — hand 扌 + axe 斤
Originally written as 折 with a hand (扌) breaking or chopping something with an axe (斤), depicting the act of snapping or cutting in two. The core meaning 'to break, snap, fold' extends metaphorically to 'bend,' 'turn back,' and 'discount' (as in reducing a price by breaking off part).
腾 — horse 馬 + phonetic 朕
腾 (traditional 騰) is a semantic-phonetic compound: the horse radical 馬 gives the meaning, while 朕 supplies the sound. It originally depicted a horse galloping or leaping upward, and the meaning broadened to 'soar,' 'gallop,' 'rise,' or 'surge,' as in 腾飞 (soar) and 沸腾 (boil over).