Taxonomy of meanings for 除:　　

Additional information about 除

說文解字: 【除】，殿陛也。从𨸏、余聲。 【直魚切】

Criteria
• REMOVE
  

  1. The most general term for removing anything is qù 去.

  2. Chú 除 refers specifically to getting rid of something undesirable.

  3. Chè 徹 is to remove objects ceremoniously as part of a ritual or the like.

  4. Qiān 遷 can refer to the moving an object from a place, although usually the focus is moving something to a place. See DISPLACE.

• AVOID
  

  [[BASIC/DERIVED]]

  [ABSTRACT/CONCRETE]

  [DELIBERATE/INVOLUNTARY]

  [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

  [GRAMMATICALISED/LEXICAL]

  [HIGH-DEGREE/LOW-DEGREE]

  1. The general word is miǎn 免 (ant. zāo 遭 "encounter"), and this refers to any voluntary or involuntary process leading to one's escape from what otherwise might occur, especially one's being spared a negative experience.

  [CONCRETE], [GENERAL]

  2. Bì 避 (ant. mào 冒 "expose oneself to"), unlike miǎn 免, is always deliberate and describes a strategy of action which successfully avoids an undesirable impending danger.

  [DELIBERATE]

  3. Yuàn 遠 (ant. jìn 近 "move close to") is a specific strategy of avoidance which is well within one's control and consists in keeping what is undesirable at a long distance from one.

  [DELIBERATE], [HIGH-DEGREE]

  4. Lí 離 differs from yuàn 遠 in the fact that no great distance, concrete or abstract, is implied in the word.

  [DELIBERATE]; [[DERIVED]]

  5. Chú 除 refers to the avoidance or removal of something that is perceived as posing a powerful threat. See REMOVE

  [CAUSATIVE], [DELIBERATE]; [[DERIVED]]

  6. Qù 去 (ant. lí 罹 "get exposed to") is avoidance through getting rid of what is threatening.

  [CAUSATIVE], [DELIBERATE]; [[DERIVED]]

  7. Jué 絕 refers to avoidance through getting rid completely and definitively of what is threatening.

  [ABSTRACT], [CAUSATIVE], [DELIBERATE], [HIGH-DEGREE]

  8. Tuì 退 refers to avoidance by withdrawing from what exposes one to what is threatening.

  [DELIBERATE], [SPECIFIC]

  9. Wù 勿 is a negation referring to an instruction to avoid doing something, and the word often has an object pronoun understood. See NOT.

  [GRAMMATICALISED]

• STAIRS
  

  1. General term for stairs is jiē 階. The word usually refers to the high stairs leading to an important building, such as the hall in a palace or temple, but it can be used also for the stairs of ordinary dwellings. That the word refers mainly to the stairs of important buildings can be easily understood, since in archaic China only these buildings were levelled on a higher platform. Already in the Warring States period, the word can also refer to a ladder.

  2. Bì 陛 is another word for stairs and it refers to the high stairs. Since Qin times, the word specifically referred to the stairs used by the emperor in his palace.

  3. Chú 除 in Han and Wei times referred to the stairs in a palace, later it came to be used for stairs generally.

  4. Zuò 阼 refers to the east-side staircase in a palace, temple, or aristocratic mansion. This was used by the host when inviting guests (while the guests used western staircase) or by the ruler when performing sacrifice.

  5. Cè (written like 土戚 ) refers to the left-side staircase of the main hall in a palace which was used by the emperor; it has nine steps.

  6. Píng 平 refers to the right-side staircase - or more precisely the slope way of bricks - of the main hall in a palace.

• TAKE OFF
  

  1. The current word for taking off clothes is jiě 解 (ant. pī 被 "put on").

  2. Shì 釋 (ant.* yì 衣 "put on (clothes)" refers to the taking off of any part of one's clothes and typically suggests that no further use is to made of them by the person who is thus taking them off.

  3. Tǎn 袒 refers to the baring of one's chest and upper arms.

  4. Xī 裼 refers to the baring of the whole upper part of one's body.

  5. Wèn 免 refers to the taking off of head-gear.

  6. Tuō 脫 typically refers to the taking off of footwear.

  7. Luǒ 裸 refers to taking off clothes so as to show parts of one's bare body.

  8. Chú 除 refers to the removal of any part of one's clothing.

• CURE
  

  1. The general-use current word for curing patients of illnesses is zhì/chí 治.

  2. Chōu 瘳 refers to a cure taking effect, and this word is often used in nominalised ways.

  3. The result of successful therapy is standardly yù 愈 / 瘉, yǐ 已.

  4. Chú 除 refers to getting rid of the disease.

  5. Gōng 攻 is the standard word describing an attempt at curing a disease.

  6. Jiǔ 灸 is a specific ancient medical technique, that of cauterisation.

  7. Tán 彈 is to prick open with a needle.

  8. Zhēn 針 / 鍼 is needle therapy which is not necessarily to be identified with anything like acupuncture as we know it today.

  9. Yī 醫 focusses on the professional aspect of medical treatment as depending on trained specialisation.

Word relations
• Ant: (AVOID)得/OBTAIN The current general and highly abstract verb for obtaining any form of possession of anything abstract or concrete is dé 得 (ant. shī 失 "lose inadvertently").
• Ant: (AVOID)致/ACHIEVE Zhì 致 refers specifically to remarkable successful action, typically on others' behalf. [ALTRUISTIC], [DIFFICULT]; [VERB] 1 Attribution
• Ant: (REMOVE)就/CONFORM1 Attribution
• Ant: (REMOVE)興/ESTABLISH
• Contrast: (REMOVE)滅/DESTROY Miè 滅 refers to the physical destruction of cities or states, and the word implies the use of external military force, and typically military resistance.
• Contrast: (REMOVE)解/STOP
• Contrast: (AVOID)避 / 辟/AVOID Bì 避 (ant. mào 冒"expose oneself to"), unlike miǎn 免, is always deliberate and describes a strategy of action which successfully avoids an undesirable impending danger. [DELIBERATE]
• Assoc: (REMOVE)解/REMOVE
• Assoc: (REMOVE)卻/DISCARD Què 卻 (ant. shòu 受 "accept for employment") typically refers to a rejection or discarding of something as useless.
• Synon: (REMOVE)去/REMOVE The most general term for removing anything is qù 去. 1 Attribution