How to write 炊

炊 [chuī] 【动】 【本义】烧火做饭 1. 同本义 ([En.] cook meal) - 烧火做饭：～事。～烟。巧妇难为无米之～。 (Cooking: prepare meals, cooking smoke. A good cook cannot make a meal without rice.) 2. 烧火 ([En.] fire) - 例: 炊桂 (Firewood is scarce and valuable, like cinnamon. Metaphor for a hard life where basic necessities are hard to obtain); 炊骨 (Burn human bones). 【引】 1. 《公羊传》：析骸而炊之。 (From "Gongyang Zhuan": Chop up the bones and cook them.) 2. 《汉书·枚乘传》：一人炊之。 (From "Han Shu, Biography of Mei Cheng": One person cooks for him.) 3. 《史记·封禅书》：先炊之属。注:“先炊，古炊母之神也。” (From "Records of the Grand Historian": First belongs to the cooking deities. Note: "The first cooking refers to the ancient goddess of cooking.") 4. 杜甫《石壕吏》：急应河阳役，犹得备晨炊。 (From Du Fu's "The Officer of Shigang": Urgently respond to the HeYang task, still manage to prepare breakfast.) 【例】 如: 炊米 (cook rice) 炊人 (cook, chef) 炊妇 (woman who cooks) 吹家子 (person in ancient military who is in charge of cooking) 吹沙成饭 (like trying to make food from sand – metaphor for fruitless effort) 【造字法】形声。从火，吹省声。 (Construction method of the character: it is a phonetic and semantic compound; the radical means 'fire', the sound is taken from 'blow'.) *参见「炊累 」条。