抜 means “pull out”

ぬく · nuku

Also: slip out, extract, pilfer

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

ぬく, ぬき, ぬける, ぬかす, ぬかる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

バツ, ハツ, ハイ

JLPT N3 · Taught in secondary school · 7 strokes

The story

A hand (扌) yanking something loose: pulling out. 抜く is to pull out or overtake, 手抜き is cutting corners, and the spring national high school baseball tournament is nicknamed センバツ, from 選抜, selection.

Used in 抜く (nuku, to pull out), 追い抜く (oinuku, to overtake), and 選抜 (senbatsu, selection)

More from Victory & Defeat

• 努 effort
• 倒 fall
• 戦 fight
• 勝 win
• 打 hit
• 争 compete
• 位 rank
• 格 status
• 球 ball
• 負 lose
• 失 lose
• 段 step

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

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