字 The character 刨 has two readings. páo is to dig or to deduct, as in 刨根问底 (to get to the root). bào is the carpentry sense: a plane, or to plane and shave wood, as in 刨子 (a wood plane).
刂 on the right is the side form of 刀, a single-edged blade. As the indexing radical it marks 刨 as a scraping or cutting action, grouping it with 刻 to carve, 削 to peel, 切 to slice.
包 on the left supplies the sound, bāo shifting to páo (and to bào in the carpentry reading). Same phonetic feeds 抱 to hold, 跑 to run, 炮 cannon, 泡 bubble.
