Second game lingo for this week.

構える (かまえる) appears frequently in action games in the pattern ＜武器＞を構える. The basic meaning is “ready a weapon,” but it’s important to check the context because it can sometimes take on a meaning similar to 狙う – “aim a weapon.” In either case it is the action that must be taken before firing.

It also gets used in these cool compound verbs:
待ち構える (まちかまえる) – wait ready for, lie in wait for, be on the watch for
身構える (みがまえる) – be on guard, stand ready, square off

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 8:11 am and is filed under kanji, video games, vocab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.