食

shí

eat; food; meal

Meaning

Substance: Food, meals, or provisions. In ancient contexts, this is heavily weighted toward grains and basic staples rather than general cuisine.
Action: To eat, consume, or ingest.
Provision: To feed, nourish, or provide sustenance. This extends to social or political obligations, such as providing stipends or salaries.

Grammar and usage

Noun vs. Verb: Frequently shifts between roles. When appearing as a predicate, it typically denotes the action of eating; when following a numeral or modifier, it typically refers to food or rations.
Transitivity: As a transitive verb, distinguish between consuming (eating something) and providing (feeding someone), the latter often implying a relationship of official support or dependency.

Distinctions

Event vs. Substance: May refer to the physical substance (food/grain) or the timed event and social ritual (the meal).
Metaphorical Nullification: When paired with abstract nouns, it can denote breaking a promise or nullifying a statement (e.g., 食言, "eating one's words").

Graphical notes

Radical Form: As a stand-alone glyph, it functions as the primary action or object. When appearing as the radical 飠 (left side), it serves as a category marker indicating that the character belongs to the semantic field of nourishment and food.

Decontextualized translator aid. This page describes plausible lexical range; it does not choose what the glyph means in a particular passage.