枪毙
qiāng bì · HSK 7
to execute by firing squad
🔫 枪 qiāng = gun + 毙 bì = die/kill → gun someone to death; also figuratively kill an idea
枪 is the gun/firearm; 毙 means to drop dead or put to death. Together: death by gunfire (firing squad). The figurative sense, to shoot down a plan or proposal, runs on the same logic: you gun the idea down.
枪 — wood 木 + 仓 cāng (phonetic)
枪 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the wood radical 木 indicates the original meaning—a wooden spear or staff—while 仓 supplies the sound. It first referred to spears and later extended to firearms (guns, rifles) once such weapons appeared, keeping the same character.