to lose; to throw; to misplace
HSK level
丢 is written with 6 strokes. The animation replays automatically.
丢 (diū) is a verb with three related meanings: 'to lose / misplace' something (钱包丢了 'the wallet is lost'), 'to throw / toss' (把球丢过来 'throw the ball over'), and 'to set aside / discard' (丢在一边 'toss aside').
It is colloquial in register and very common in daily speech. An important extended use is 丢脸 / 丢人 ('to lose face, to be embarrassing'), where 丢 means to lose one's dignity.
Two differences from English: 丢 for losing possessions is usually intransitive with the thing as subject — 我的钥匙丢了 literally 'my keys got lost,' with no agent; and the same verb covers both accidental losing and deliberate throwing/discarding, which English splits into 'lose' and 'throw.' For simply losing an object it overlaps with 掉, but 丢 stresses that the item is gone/missing.
我把手机丢了。
Wǒ bǎ shǒujī diū le.
I lost my phone.
spoken
别把垃圾丢在地上。
Bié bǎ lājī diū zài dìshàng.
Don't throw trash on the ground.
spoken
考这么差，真丢脸。
Kǎo zhème chà, zhēn diūliǎn.
Scoring so badly is really embarrassing.
spoken
他把不要的东西都丢掉了。
Tā bǎ búyào de dōngxi dōu diūdiào le.
He threw away all the things he didn't want.
spoken
掉 stresses that something fell/dropped; 丢 stresses it is lost/missing or was thrown. For a lost wallet both work (钱包掉了/丢了), but only 丢 gives 丢脸 (lose face) and the 'throw' sense.
扔 means specifically 'to throw / toss out.' For the throwing sense 丢 and 扔 overlap, but 扔 does not mean 'to lose accidentally,' whereas 丢 does.
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