Chinese word

拉架

Pronunciation

Pinyinlā jià

Meaning

  • verbbreak up a fight

Example

路上两人要打起来了，我上前去拉架。lù shàng liǎng rén yào dǎ qǐ lái le wǒ shàng qián qù lā jià

The two people on the road were about to fight, so I stepped in to break it up.

Illustration for 拉架 (break up a fight)

More examples

两家公司因为误会起争执，经理冲上去拉架，制止争吵。liǎng jiā gōng sī yīn wèi wù huì qǐ zhēng zhí jīng lǐ chōng shàng qù lā jià zhì zhǐ zhēng chǎo

The two companies got into an argument because of a misunderstanding, and the manager rushed over to break up the fight and stop the argument.

Core concept

A conflict is stopped by physically drawing its participants away from one another.

Common phrases

  • 连忙去拉架lián máng qù lā jià

    hurry over to break up a fight

  • 叫人拉架jiào rén lā jià

    call someone to break up a fight

Similar words

制止zhì zhǐ: Make a person or activity stop.
阻止zú zhǐ: Prevent an action or event from starting or continuing.
劝架quàn jià: Talk to people who are fighting and persuade them to calm down and stop.
分开fēn kāi: Separate nearby people or things so they are no longer together.

Definition in Chinese

用手或身体把正在打斗的人拉开，使争斗停止。yòng shǒu huò shēn tǐ bǎ zhèng zài dǎ dòu de rén lā kāi shǐ zhēng dòu tíng zhǐ

Word origin

拉 (lā, "pull") combines with 架 (jià, "fight"), a component associated with 打架 (dǎjià, "to fight"), so the compound describes pulling fighters apart.

Usage tips

  • In everyday conversation, this verb describes a bystander's physical intervention, while stopping a calm disagreement requires a different expression.

Other meanings

  • separate the fightersverb
  • intervene in a fightverb

Related words

Word lists with this word