Han character 隻

It counts one thing or one member of a pair.

In Chinese, 隻 is a measure word—a word used after a number to count a kind of thing—for animals, boats, some objects, and one side of a pair. In Japanese, read せき (seki), it follows a number to count ships and one side of certain paired objects. Compounds can use it to mean “single” or “alone.”

Early oracle-bone inscriptions—writing carved on bones used in divination—and inscriptions cast on bronze use 隻 for “capture”; its graph shows a hand holding a bird. A separate character, 獲, later took over that verb. The Han-era Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi (“Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters”) describes 隻 as “one bird” and contrasts it with two birds, 雙.

隻 vs 只?

For this classifier, 只 is the simplified form of 隻.

Traditional Chinese keeps 隻 and 只 distinct; 只 can mean “only.” In Simplified Chinese, 只 also writes this classifier, so the sentence tells you which word it is.