宥

The core meaning is the suspension or removal of a deserved penalty, ranging from formal legal pardon to personal leniency or indulgence. It focuses on the decision not to enforce a consequence rather than an emotional erasure of a wrong.

• Transitive Verb: The most common usage ([Authority/Person] → 宥 → [Offender/Fault]).
• Modifier (Adjective): Used to describe a person or policy as "lenient" or "indulgent."

• Vs. 赦 (shè): While both can mean pardon, 赦 typically denotes formal, state-level amnesty or the legal clearing of a record; 宥 is more frequently associated with an act of grace, mercy, or personal lenience.
• Vs. 恕 (shù): 恕 implies empathy and reciprocity; 宥 does not require empathy and can be a top-down decision of grace or strategic indulgence.
• Vs. 寬 (kuān): 寬 often describes the broad-minded character of the person granting leniency, whereas 宥 describes the act of pardoning itself.

The glyph provides the fact of leniency; the surrounding context determines whether this is a legal pardon (formal), a father indulging a child (domestic), or a ruler showing mercy to a subject (political).