Quranic root
خبط
kh · b · ṭ
The root centers on forceful striking or treading, especially striking the ground with the feet.
From physical striking and beating, the lexicon develops extensions for knocking leaves from trees, proceeding without a clear direction, afflicting or disordering a person, and approaching someone for a benefit without an established tie.
- Maqāyīs · row 1508
- Mufradāt · row 387
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
تَخَبَّطَ
takhabbaṭa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To strike, touch, or afflict, causing a person to be prostrated or physically overcome.
In the Quranic construction with Satan as subject and a person as object; the expression is interpreted as Satan’s striking or touching the person and causing him to fall or be overcome.
- Lane · entry 18371
- Mufradāt · row 387
To throw into commotion, confusion, or insanity; to confound.
In the Quranic construction of Satan’s affliction, describing a disturbed or deranged condition. The Form V verb also has the broader construction of being or becoming agitated and disordered.
- Lane · entry 18371
- Lane · entry 18373
- Mufradāt · row 387
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:275word 10
“confounds him”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:275يَتَخَبَّطُهُconfounds him
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 32 Classical meanings
خَبَطَ
To strike or beat; to tread forcefully, especially with an animal’s feet; also to strike people with a sword.
Animal usage concerns striking with the feet: beasts generally with the forefeet, while a camel may strike with forefeet or hind feet. The sword construction is a figurative extension.
- Lane · entry 18371
خَبَطَ
To go or act without direction, on a wrong or obscure path; to proceed randomly or recklessly.
Used of journeying without guidance, taking a non-main road, or undertaking an affair without insight; also occurs in the conventional expression خَبْطَ عَشْوَاءَ.
- Lane · entry 18371
خَبَطَ
To ask someone for a benefit or favor without kinship, prior acquaintance, or another established tie.
A conventional request-for-benefit use, based on approaching or coming to someone without a relationship that would ordinarily grant access.
- Lane · entry 18371
خَبَطَ
To confer a benefit on someone without prior acquaintance, relationship, or other connection; to benefit people.
Used of bestowing a favor, including on people with whom the benefactor has no previous tie.
- Lane · entry 18371
خَبَطَ
To beat leaves from trees, especially to gather them as fodder.
The tree or its branches are beaten with a staff so that the leaves fall; the leaves may then be given to camels and other animals.
- Lane · entry 18371
خَبَطَ
To throw oneself down where one is, or to sleep.
A figurative extension recorded for the verb.
- Lane · entry 18371
خَبَطَ
To knock on or at a door.
Used in the construction خَبَطَ عَلَى الْبَابِ.
- Lane · entry 18371
خَبَطَ
Of a vein, to beat or pulsate.
A bodily-motion use distinct from striking an external object.
- Lane · entry 18371
اِخْتَبَطَ
Of a she-camel, to eat thorns.
A specialized animal-use construction.
- Lane · entry 18374
اِسْتَخْبَطَ
To ask someone for a means of access, nearness, intimacy, or ingratiation.
The requested person or relationship is expressed as the object of the derived verb.
- Lane · entry 18375
خَبَطٌ
That which has been beaten by beasts’ feet and broken.
A result noun describing material damaged by trampling.
- Lane · entry 18376
خَبَطٌ
Leaves beaten from a tree and used as fodder, including leaves later dried, ground, and moistened for camels.
A noun for the collected leaf material and its prepared fodder form.
- Lane · entry 18376
خَبْطَةٌ
A touch or stroke of diabolical possession or insanity.
A nominal expression for an episode or manifestation of such affliction.
- Lane · entry 18377
خَبْطَةٌ
A single act of a stallion-camel covering a female.
A conventional animal-breeding expression.
- Lane · entry 18377
خُبَاطٌ
A malady resembling diabolical possession or insanity but not identical with it.
A named illness distinguished from possession itself.
- Lane · entry 18378
خَبُوطٌ
Of a horse, one that strikes or beats with its feet.
Authorities differ whether the striking is specifically with the hind feet or may also be with the forefeet.
- Lane · entry 18379
خَبِيطٌ
A watering trough beaten down or demolished by camels, or a trough whose clay is beaten during construction.
The word may also refer more generally, or specifically, to a small watering trough.
- Lane · entry 18380
خُبَاطَةٌ
A stupid person; a stupid one as an epithet.
An attributive and determinate use recorded as a figurative application.
- Lane · entry 18381
خَبَّاطُ عَشَوَاتٍ
One who repeatedly goes through darkness without a lamp, becoming confused, losing the way, and possibly falling into danger.
A conventional epithet for repeated, heedless wandering.
- Lane · entry 18382
خَابِطٌ
One who journeys without direction, beating the ground and not knowing where he is going because of darkness or blindness.
A substantive active-participial use describing disoriented travel.
- Lane · entry 18383
خَابِطٌ
In the idiom مَا لَهُ خَابِطٌ وَلَا نَاطِحٌ, one who has nothing at all.
An idiomatic expression in which the camel and bull terms represent possessions generally.
- Lane · entry 18383
خَابِطٌ
A beating or throbbing in the head.
A nominal bodily symptom use.
- Lane · entry 18383
أَخْبَطُ
One that strikes or beats the ground with his feet.
An adjectival description, with a plural form also reported.
- Lane · entry 18384
مُخْبِطٌ
Still or motionless; also silent or downcast.
The entry gives both the motionless sense and the related sense of being silent or lowering the eyes.
- Lane · entry 18385
مِخْبَطٌ
A staff or stick used for beating leaves from trees; also a rod, twig, or similar stick.
An instrument noun; its principal plural is reported for the leaf-beating tool.
- Lane · entry 18386
مُخَبِّطٌ لِلْعَقْلِ
A drug that disorders or clouds the intellect.
Used attributively of a substance producing mental disturbance.
- Lane · entry 18388
مُخْتَبِطٌ
One who asks another for a benefit or favor without acquaintance or anything drawing them together.
A substantive active-participial use for an unintroduced petitioner.
- Lane · entry 18389
خَبُوطٌ
An arbitrary or oppressive ruler.
A metaphorical epithet derived from irregular or forceful striking.
- Mufradāt · row 387
خِبْطَةٌ
A remnant of food or other material; also a small amount of water.
A nominal extension explained through the idea of something that does not remain fixed or protected.
- Maqāyīs · row 1508
خِبْطَةٌ
A widespread rain extending over the land.
A regional or lexical extension associated with rain striking or spreading across the earth.
- Maqāyīs · row 1508
خَابِطٌ
A sleeper.
A rare, attributed lexical use explained as the sleeper’s body striking the ground.
- Maqāyīs · row 1508
خِبَاطٌ
A mark or branding on the thigh.
A noun explained through the act of striking the thigh.
- Maqāyīs · row 1508
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic expression in 2:275 supports both an interpretation of Satanic striking or prostration and an interpretation of disorder, confusion, or insanity; these are presented as distinct but related Quranic senses.
The Quran-focused discussion also records an alternative association with الاختباط, seeking a benefit. Because the Quranic construction has Satan as the subject and the afflicted person as the object, that association is retained as an interpretive alternative rather than treated as a separate meaning of the verse.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The alternative derivational explanation connecting the Quranic expression with الاختباط ('seeking a benefit') cannot be assigned as an independent meaning of the attested Satanic construction without changing its argument structure; it is preserved in the caution and usage conditions instead.