King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “bristling”

乍
zhà
at first; suddenly; abruptly; to spread

The closest CC-CEDICT match for bristling is 乍 (zhà), defined as: at first; suddenly; abruptly; to spread; (of hair) to stand on end; bristling.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

乍 zhà
first time, for the first time, suddenly
radical 4 ⼃ · 5 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 乍.

WordPinyinMeaning
乍现 (乍現)zhà xiànto appear suddenly
初来乍到 (初來乍到)chū lái zhà dàoto be a newcomer; just off the boat
乍看zhà kànat first glance
乍暖还寒 (乍暖還寒)zhà nuǎn huán hán(idiom) (of early spring weather) alternating between warm and cold
春光乍泄chūn guāng zhà xièspring sunshine emerges to bring the world alive (idiom); to give a glimpse of sth intimate (e.g. one's underwear)
一惊一乍 (一驚一乍)yī jīng yī zhàfrightened; flustered

See also: Japanese symbol for “bristling”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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