餌 means “bait, feed”

えさ · esa

Also: food, prey, tempting profit

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

え, えば, えさ, もち

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ジ, ニ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 14 strokes

The story

Food (食, on the left) hung by its ear (耳): picture bait hooked through a tab and lowered into the water. 餌 is feed or bait, 餌をやる is feeding the cat, and to become someone's 餌食 is to end up as their prey.

Used in 餌 (esa, feed/bait), 餌食 (ejiki, prey/victim), and 餌付け (ezuke, feeding wild animals)

More from Arms & the Hunt

• 弾 bullet
• 射 shoot
• 獲 catch
• 銃 gun
• 甲 armor
• 網 net
• 砲 cannon
• 矢 arrow
• 剣 sword
• 盾 shield
• 矛 spear
• 釣 fish (with a line)

Learn 餌 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.