Swaddling cloth

It means a baby's swaddling cloth or infant garment.

The older Chinese form 緥 appears in Shuowen, an early dictionary, glossed as a child's clothing; 褓 later became the common form. The compound 襁褓 names infant wrapping and can also mean infancy, as in 襁褓之年.

How does 褓 change across Chinese, Japanese, and Korean?

The language and surrounding word set the sense.

In Chinese, 褓 is a literary word for infant clothing, and 褓母 names a woman who cares for another person's child. Japanese dictionaries use it in terms for infant garments or diapers, including むつき. In Korean, 강보 is a small quilt for wrapping a baby. As of 2026, the Korean dictionary also lists 褓 as the Hanja for 보, the paper hand in 가위바위보.

Someone sent just 褓 — what should you make of it?

Treat it as a word or quoted character until context clears it up.

As of 2026, there is no established standalone chat-reaction reading for 褓. Ask which language or phrase it came from: by itself, the character does not say whether the writer means infant clothing or part of a Korean word.