King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “shred”

擦
cā
to rub; to scratch; to wipe; to polish; to apply (lipstick, lotion etc); to brush (past)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for shred is 擦 (cā), defined as: to rub; to scratch; to wipe; to polish; to apply (lipstick, lotion etc); to brush (past); to shred (a vegetable etc).

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

擦 cā
to clean, to erase, to polish; a brush
radical 64 ⼿ · 17 strokes

Other Chinese words for “shred”

WordPinyinMeaning
切成qiē chéngto cut up (into pieces); to slice
碎布条 (碎布條)suì bù tiáoshred
菹zūmarshland; swamp
擦丝 (擦絲)cā sīto grate (cheese, carrots etc); to shred

Related words

Other words that share a character with 擦.

WordPinyinMeaning
摩擦mó cāfriction; rubbing
擦肩而过 (擦肩而過)cā jiān ér guòto brush past; to pass by (sb); (fig.) to miss (an opportunity, a danger etc); to have a brush (with death)
磨擦mó cāvariant of 摩擦 (mó cā)
擦亮cā liàngto polish
擦拭cā shìto wipe clean
擦干 (擦乾)cā gānto wipe dry

See also: Japanese symbol for “shred”.

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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