甩
shuǎi · HSK 7
to throw
🤾 shuǎi sounds like to 'sway' — swing your arm and fling it away
The hand radical 扌on the left marks it as an arm action: to fling, throw, or swing something off. By extension it means to ditch or leave someone behind, like a runner who shuǎi/sways past rivals and drops them.
甩 — 用 (use) with an extra downward stroke
甩 is a relatively late character formed by modifying 用 (use) with an added curving stroke at the bottom, suggesting something being flung or cast off. It is treated as an indicative character rather than a true pictograph, and its core meaning—to swing, throw, or shake off—stems from this image of a downward flicking motion.