消遣
xiāo qiǎn · HSK 7
recreation
🎲 消 dissipate + 遣 dispatch = dispatching away spare time; a pastime
消 means to dissipate or use up; 遣 means to dispatch or send off. Together they describe sending idle hours away — what you do for amusement to make time pass.
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.