Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

拖

tuō

to drag; to tow; to haul

Phono-semantic compound 形聲
HSK 6
TOCFL 6
radical 手
8 strokes
拕

Etymology graph

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Origin

Variant form of 拕, phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *l̥ʰaːl, *l̥ʰaːls): semantic 手 + phonetic 它 (OC *l̥ʰaːl).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

meaningChinese手 “hand (Classifier: 隻／只 m c mn; 雙／双 m mn; 對／对 c)”
soundChinese它 “third-person singular pronoun for inanimate objects; it”

Meanings

character

to drag; to tow; to haul
to mop
to droop; to dangle; to hang down; to sag
to hold hands
to delay; to put off; to procrastinate; to adjourn; to defer; to prolong
to sustain (a sound)

國語辭典 definitions

牽拉，一般指拉著較重的物體。例：拖拉、拖車、拖小孩　◎
垂著，在身體後面搭著。例：她拖著兩條辮子。
拉著物體使挨著另一物體的表面移動。例：拖地、長擺拖地、以拖把拖地
延遲擱置。例：拖延、拖時間、拖拖拉拉

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 拖 was written 字形演變

Small seal
說文小篆
Shuowen, c. 100 CE
Regular
楷書
since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
Wiktionary: 拖