Han character 抲

The sentence and reading decide which hand-action sense fits.

The Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese dictionary, analyzes 抲 as 从手可声 (the hand element plus 可 as a sound component) and glosses it as 撝, “to direct or gesture by hand,” citing the Book of Documents. The later transmitted text of that book’s 酒诰 chapter writes 拘 where the dictionary quotation has 抲; a later note on the dictionary calls 拘 an error.

Later dictionaries list separate hand-action senses: directing, bearing, gripping, and choking. Read them as branches with different contexts, not as one interchangeable definition.

Are 荷 and 揢 related to 抲?

Yes; each link belongs to a different reading.

The Jiyun, an old Chinese dictionary, cross-references 荷 under the bearing sense and 揢 under the choking-or-gripping sense. These are lexical links tied to specific entries; they do not make the characters interchangeable in every sentence.

Where is 抲 used?

Regional contexts give 抲 its clearest everyday meanings.

A 2016 report from Hangzhou, a city in Zhejiang, gives 抲牢 for “grip tight,” 抲鱼 for “catch fish,” and 双抲 for a Zhejiang-associated card game; it notes the alternatives 双扣 and 双抠. A 2017 national list of Chinese dialect spellings records 抲 for holding something tightly between thumb and forefinger in entries for Pingxiang, Nanchang, Lichuan, and Susong. These are local written uses, so the surrounding words and place matter.