拭う

• 読み: ぬぐう
• ローマ字: nuguu
• 漢字の分解: 拭 (shoku/nugu) — wipe, mop, dispel
• 発音: /nɯ.ɡɯː/

意味

To wipe; to mop up; to dispel or remove something undesirable such as a stain, tears, or a negative reputation.

A Group 1 (godan) verb. 拭う covers both the physical act of wiping (tears from a face, blood from a wound) and the figurative act of clearing away something abstract — dispelling doubt, erasing a bad reputation, or removing a sense of shame. The figurative usage is common in formal and literary writing: 汚名を拭う (to clear one's name), 不安を拭う (to dispel anxiety). It is more literary than the everyday 拭く (fuku, to wipe).

例文

1. 長年の努力でようやく汚名を拭うことができ、彼は晴れやかな表情を見せた。
2. 彼女は静かに目頭を拭いながら、別れを惜しむ友人たちに微笑み返した。
3. この事故に対する不信感は、誠意ある対応なしには拭えないだろう。

使い方ガイド

場面: literature, journalism, daily life, PR/reputation

トーン: neutral

起源と歴史

The kanji 拭 combines 扌(hand radical) and 式 (ceremony/pattern), suggesting a deliberate, patterned wiping motion. The figurative use — clearing away something intangible — appears from the Heian period onward in classical Japanese literature.

文化的背景

時代: Classical to Contemporary

世代: All ages

社会的背景: General