Taxonomy of meanings for 匱:　　

  • 匱 guì (OC: ɡruds MC: ɡʷɯi) 求位切 去 廣韻：【竭也乏也説文曰匣也又姓何氏姓苑云今廬江人求位切十一 】
    • BOX
      • nlarge wooden box with doors, a mini cupboard
      • ncpost-V{NUM}.post-Nclassifierbox-full
    • FAIL
      • vifail, suffer failures; be a failure; fail to do what one should do
      • vtoNfail when it comes to, fail to do one's duty with respect to
    • FEW
      • nabfeaturescarcity of resources
      • vibe deficient, be in short supply 財匱
      • vi0there is insufficiency of resources
    • POOR
      • visubject=humansuffer shortages, be in straights; suffer want 匱餓
      • vt+prep+Nsuffer shortages because of NDS
    • CANAL
      • LAKE
        • CHEAT
          • SURNAMES
            • = 潰
            • = 簣
            • = 餽

            Additional information about 匱

            說文解字:

              Criteria
            • FEW

              1. The current general word referring to the relatively small number or the small amount of something is shǎo 少 (ant. duō 多 "many, much").

              2. Guǎ 寡 (ant. zhòng 眾 "numerous" and occasionally also duō 多 "large in quantity") typically refers specifically humans not being numerous as opposed to larger groups of humans, but the word comes to refer also to any quantity being relatively large ( 五穀多寡 "the relative abundance of grain") and I have not found a systematic difference in nuance with shǎo 少 when the word is so used, except for the generally subjective intuition that guǎ 寡 being the dominant word in early times, perhaps retained a somewhat more dignified stylistic value throughout.

              3. Fá 乏 and kuì 匱 (ant. zú 足 "enough") refer specifically to the shortage of something one definitely needs more of.

              4. Xī 希 / 稀 and the more archaic xiǎn 鮮 refers to sparsity of distribution.

              5. Jiǎn 減 (ant. zēng 增 "increase") refers specifically to the reduction of the amount of the number of something. See also DIMINISH.

            • BOX

              1. Qiè 篋 refers generally to a box in pre-Han literature, and specifically to an oval bamboo basket with cover, used for saving precious things, but also books or cloth.

              2. Guì 匱 refers to a cabinet-like box with doors.

              3. Dú 櫝 refers to a small box with small doors.

              4. Xiá 匣／柙 refers to a small box for objects like maps.

              5. The most general current word for a box became xiāng 箱, but this word became current only in Han times.

              6. Hán 函 refers to a container box large enough to contain a skull.

              Word relations
            • Object: (BOX)啟/OPEN The most common general word for opening things is qǐ 啟 (ant. bì 閉 "close") which can refer to all sorts of opening up of all manner of things.
            • Assoc: (POOR)乏/LACK Fá 乏 (ant. zú 足 "have enough of") refers to the insufficiency of something needed or the absence of supplies.
            • Assoc: (POOR)乏/POOR Fá 乏 (ant. yù 裕 "abundantly supplied") refers to a shortage in a certain commodity or in a certain specified group of commodities.
            • Assoc: (POOR)餓/HUNGRY È 餓 refers to famine as a serious condition threatening the lives of the persons involved.
            • Assoc: (FEW)窮/EXHAUST Qióng 窮 and dān 殫 focusses on the result of exhausting resources as being the absence of these resources.
            • Assoc: (POOR)窮/POOR Qióng 窮 (ant. fù 富 "rich") refers to an extreme state of destitution, which may, however, be transitory, and the word may also refer not so much to poverty as such as marked lack of expected success, professional failure (ant. dá 達); and the word may also refer to persons without regular means of support such as widows and orphans.