挤
jǐ · HSK 5
squeeze
🤏 hand 扌+ 齐 (together) — hands pushing things together to squeeze
挤 combines the hand radical 扌 with 齐 (jǐ, even/together), giving both the sound and the sense of pressing things tightly together. Think rush-hour subway: 挤地铁 = squeeze onto the metro.
挤 — hand radical 扌 + 齐 (qí, even)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the hand radical 扌 gives the meaning of pressing or pushing with the hand, while 齐 supplies the sound. The simplified form replaces the traditional 擠, whose right side 齊 depicted ears of grain growing evenly. The core sense is to squeeze, press together, or crowd.