拆
chāi · HSK 5
to tear open; to tear down
✋🪓 拆 = 手 (hand) + 斥 (reject/push away) — hand that pulls apart
The 扌 radical marks a hand action; 斥 carries the sense of pushing off or rejecting. Together: a hand that pushes things apart — tearing open, unsealing, dismantling. The pinyin chāi rhymes with English 'chai' tea, bagged and ripped open.
拆 — hand radical 扌 + 斥 chì (phonetic)
拆 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 (扌 = 手) gives the meaning, since taking apart or tearing down is done with the hands. The right side 斥 supplies the sound, originally close to 'chì,' which shifted to 'chāi' in modern Mandarin.