蹭 (cèng): to rub against, to walk slowly, (coll.) to freeload
蹭 (cèng) is a Chinese character meaning “to rub against.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 足 (semantic) and 曾 (phonetic). It ranks #2957 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 蹭 foot. Its radical form 足 (foot) appears in many related characters such as 跑 (pǎo, to run), 跟 (gēn, follow, heel), 路 (lù, road).
Definitions
- to rub against
- to walk slowly
- (coll.) to freeload
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 蹭 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 磨蹭verb | mó ceng | to rub lightly |
| 蹭热度 | cèng rè dù | (coll.) (often derog.) to piggyback on (sb's) popularity |
| 蹭车 | cèng chē | (coll.) to ride in sb else's car to save money |
| 蹭吃 | cèng chī | to freeload for food |
| 蹭吃蹭喝 | cèng chī cèng hē | to cadge a meal |
| 蹭网 | cèng wǎng | (coll.) to use sb else's Internet connection (with or without permission) |
| 蹭饭verb | cèng fàn | (coll.) to mooch a meal |
| 蹭课verb | cèng kè | (coll.) to sit in on a class |
| 磨磨蹭蹭verb | mó mó cèng cèng | to dillydally |
| 剐蹭 | guǎ cèng | see 刮蹭 |
| 刮蹭verb | guā cèng | (esp. of a vehicle) to scrape against |
| 蹭蹬verb | cèng dèng | (literary) to encounter setbacks |
蹭 appears in 12 compound words: 67 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 8 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.
Strongest Collocations
Characters that most frequently co-occur with 蹭 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Example Sentences
老师教我们蹭字的发音和笔顺。
lǎo shī jiào wǒ men cèng zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .
The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "蹭."
但其实买完之后阅读时间蹭蹭上涨，怎么看都是一笔低投入高回报的投资。
dàn qí shí mǎi wán zhī hòu yuè dòu shí jiān cèng cèng shàng zhǎng , zěn má kàn dōu shì yī bǐ dī tóu rù gāo huí bào de tóu zī .
But in reality, after buying it, my reading time has skyrocketed—it really seems like a low-cost, high-return investment.
晋江文学城公开喊话番茄小说：指控其长期存在大量“蹭 IP”式侵权内容，敦促自查自纠
jìn jiāng wén xué chéng gōng kāi hǎn huà fān jiā xiǎo shuō : zhǐ kòng qí cháng qī cún zài dà liàng cèng I P shì qīn quán nèi róng , dūn cù zì chá zì jiū
Jinjiang Literature City publicly called out Tomato Fiction, accusing it of long-standing, widespread infringement involving “IP-riding” content, and urged it to conduct a self-inspection and take corrective measures.
这不，想起来自己也能加 92 的上汽大众也抓紧来蹭热度了。
zhè bù , xiǎng qǐ lái zì jǐ yě néng jiā 9 2 de shàng qì dà zhòng yě zhuā jǐn lái cèng rè dù le .
Sure enough, SAIC Volkswagen—which also offers 92-octane fuel—quickly jumped on the bandwagon to ride the wave of attention.
可惜的是在坐上橡皮艇时我的手被蹭上了某种奇怪的粘土，一股恶臭瞬间充斥着我的鼻腔。
kě xī de shì zài zuò shàng xiàng pí tǐng shí wǒ de shǒu bèi cèng shàng le mǒu zhǒng qí guài de nián tǔ , yī gǔ è chòu shùn jiān chōng chì zhe wǒ de bí qiāng .
Unfortunately, as I got into the rubber boat, my hand brushed against some strange kind of clay, and a foul odor instantly filled my nostrils.
短裙女搭捷运“大腿被蹭10秒” 低头见痴汉露鸟套弄
duǎn qún nǚ dā jié yùn dà tuǐ bèi cèng 1 0 miǎo dī tóu jiàn chī hàn lù niǎo tào nòng
The woman in a short skirt took the MRT and "her thighs were rubbed for 10 seconds" and looked down to see the fool dew and the bird
要不是他这么磨磨蹭蹭，现在早做完了。
Yàobushì tā zhème mómócèngcèng, xiànzài zǎo zuòwán le.
If he hadn't wasted time, he'd be finished by now.
你磨蹭什么呀，快点去吧。
Nǐ móceng shénme ya, kuài diǎn qù ba.
What are you lingering for? Hurry up and go.
我去你那蹭饭吃。
Wǒqù nǐ nà cèng fàn chī.
I'm going to mooch a meal off you at your place.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 蹭 (cèng) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 蹭 and 增?
How many strokes does 蹭 have?
What is the radical of 蹭?
What are the components of 蹭?
What are common words containing 蹭?
What characters sound the same as 蹭 (cèng)?
Is 蹭 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 蹭 with real-time feedback
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