消
xiāo · HSK 7
to spend
💨 消 = water radical 氵+ 肖; liquid carries things away until they vanish
The 氵(water) radical on the left signals flowing-away; 肖 (xiào) gives the sound. Together: things dwindle and disappear, like spending time or eliminating a problem.
消 — water 氵 + 肖 (phonetic)
消 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the water radical 氵 indicates the meaning, while 肖 (xiào) supplies the sound. It originally described water dwindling or melting away, and from there extended to the modern senses of vanishing, dissolving, and dispelling.