潰す

つぶす · tsubusu · JLPT N2 · verb-godan

to smash

🔨 潰 = 氵 (water) + 貴 (precious): smash something precious and it is wasted

Both meanings come from one idea: crushing something valuable ruins it. The kanji's phonetic part is 貴, which also appears in 貴重 (kichō, valuable).

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