There are a few ways to say to crush in Thai. Let’s learn what they are and if there are any differences between them.

❗️ Please note the following are all for the literal meaning of “crush” and not expressions (like having a crush on someone).

The 3 words you will learn are บี้ (bêe), ขยี้ (kà-yêe), and บด (bòt). I will explain in the order of the degree of how much effort is required to crush.

บี้

bêe is to crush / smash / press with your fingers. You squeeze / smush something. The effort required is that of using your fingers

ขยี้

kà-yêe is like squeezing/crushing and requires more effort than bêe.

A way to explain the difference is ขยี้ (kà-yêe) would crush something into smaller and more pieces than bêe.

บด

bòt is to grind. Think of bòt as when you are grinding/crushing something with a tool to make it into powder/small pieces. So บด (bòt) is the highest degree of crushing.

An example of บด would be when using a mortar (ครก krók) and pestle (สาก sàak) to grind/crush something.

Summary

บี้, ขยี้, and บด all mean to crush. Although บด is the type of crushing that requires the most effort, they can pretty much be used interchangeably.