熬 áo to boil
to boil; to simmer; to endure
How to remember 熬: 敖 to ramble + 灬 fire = to boil. Grandpa goes out to ramble through the fields, leaving the bone soup over a low fire to boil all afternoon.
Component breakdown
熬 = 敖 to ramble + 灬 fire
- 敖 to ramble
- 灬 fire
Grandpa goes out to ramble through the fields, leaving the bone soup over a low fire to boil all afternoon.
How it is used
- Literal sense is to slow-cook or simmer for a long time, especially soups, congee, or medicine: 熬粥 áo zhōu (simmer rice porridge), 熬汤 áo tāng (simmer soup).
- Figuratively means to endure or grind through hardship over time: 熬夜 áoyè, "to stay up late/pull an all-nighter," is an extremely common everyday word (熬夜工作 "stay up late working").
- 煎熬 jiān'áo (as a noun, "suffering/torment") captures the drawn-out, painful sense of enduring something difficult, echoing the slow-cooking image.