只
only / merely / just / but
只
=
八
+
口
:
Mnemonic symbol: this character looks like something (a head?) on two legs. I'll just represent it by a cuttlefish (只). James II of England (zh) has been in the space station (Ø3) as the only (只) one for too long and went mad. He thinks he's holding a mandarin (口), but he's just about to bite into merely (只) an eight ball (八). On the top of his head is a cuttlefish (只) he mistook for a hat.
只 character breakdown
mouth / classifier for things with mouths (people, domestic animals, cannons, wells etc) / classifier for bites or mouthfuls
Mnemonic symbol: 口 shall be represented by a mandarin. Karl Marx (k-) is enjoying a mandarin in the outhouse's living room (ou3).
eight; 8
Characters with 只 as component
to amass / to accumulate / to store / measured quantity (such as area of volume) / product (the result of multiplication) / to integrate (math.) / to solve (or integrate) an ordinary differential equation (math.) / old / long-standing
Words with 只
solely preoccupied (with one thing) / engrossed / focusing (on sth) / to look after only one aspect
to see (the same thing) over and over again / to see, to one's surprise, (sth happen suddenly)
unable to see the wood for the trees / fig. only able to see isolated details, and not the bigger picture
only the official is allowed to light the fire / Gods may do what cattle may not / quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi
to seize every minute (idiom) / to make the best use of one's time
(idiom) to seize every minute; to make the best use of one's time
If you work at it hard enough, you can grind an iron bar into a needle. / cf idiom 磨杵成針|磨杵成针, to grind an iron bar down to a fine needle (idiom); fig. to persevere in a difficult task / to study diligently