袂

Sleeve; specifically the extremity, end, or cuff of the sleeve.

Noun.

Contrast with 袖 (xiù): While both are translated as "sleeve" and appear together in the compound 袖袂 to refer generally to clothing, they often carry different functional emphases. 袖 typically refers to the sleeve as a garment component (the tube of fabric), whereas 袂 tends to denote the extremity or edge of the sleeve.

A phonetic-semantic compound consisting of the clothing radical (衤) and the phonetic 每.

The choice of 袂 over 袖 often signals a point of physical contact or a specific gesture, frequently appearing in scenes of human interaction or emotional distress—such as clutching the cuff to prevent someone from leaving or using the sleeve edge to wipe away tears.