撬

• Pinyin: qiào
• Hanzi breakdown: 撬 = 扌(hand radical — manual action) + 翘 (to tilt upward — the action of levering)

Meaning

To pry open; to lever or use a tool to force something open or lift something by applying leverage.

Commonly used for physically forcing open locks, doors, lids, or containers. Also used figuratively in business contexts for 撬客户 (to poach clients) or 撬墙角 (to undermine someone's position by luring away their resources or partners). The figurative uses are informal and sometimes negative in connotation.

Examples

1. 小偷用铁棍撬开了车门，盗走了车内的贵重物品。 The thief pried open the car door with a crowbar and stole valuables from inside the car.
2. 维修工人用专用工具小心撬起地板砖，以便检查下方的管道。 The maintenance worker used specialized tools to carefully pry up the floor tiles to inspect the pipes underneath.
3. 竞争对手试图撬走我们公司最核心的几名工程师，开出了极具诱惑的薪资条件。 A competitor tried to poach several of our company’s most key engineers by offering extremely tempting salaries.

Usage Guide

Context: construction, crime, business

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 勘察人员在现场发现门框上有明显撬痕，判断嫌疑人系使用工具强行破门入室，随即封锁现场等待刑侦人员到来。(Investigators found clear pry marks on the door frame at the scene, determining that the suspect had forcibly broken in using a tool; they immediately sealed the scene and waited for the criminal investigation team to arrive.)
• 该行业巨头以高薪和股票期权为筹码，大规模撬走了竞争对手的技术核心团队，此举直接导致对方数个重要项目陷入停滞。(The industry giant used high salaries and stock options as leverage to poach the core technical team from a competitor on a large scale, a move that directly caused several of the rival's important projects to stall.)

Don't Say

• 我想撬开这个话题 — 撬 is for physical prying or poaching people/clients; for opening up a topic in conversation say 引出这个话题 (lead into the topic) or 打开话匣子 (open the floodgates of conversation)

Origin & History

撬 = 扌(hand radical) + 翘 (to tilt/raise) — to use the hand to lever or pry something up

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal