scales (fish)
鱗 centers on the overlapping protective plates covering fish and some reptiles: scales. The meaning is concrete and specific to fish scales.
鱗 combines 魚 (fish) with 粦, which likely contributes the sound リン and may relate to the idea of arranged rows, fitting the pattern of scales.
The left side is a fish 魚, and the right side 粦 looks like a grid of overlapping plates. Picture a fish covered in a neat grid of shiny scales.
For リン, imagine a fish with scales so shiny they ring like a bell when tapped: ring -> リン.
scale (of fish, snake, etc.)
one's superior's anger
part; portion; glimpse; bit
scale; wing scale
mitsuuroko emblem (three triangles in a triangular pattern; Hōjō clan symbol)
fish and shellfish
pseudobulb
cycloid scale
Lepidopterological Society of Japan; LSJ
Squamata; order of scaled reptiles
squamates
placoid scale
ctenoid scale
to see the light; to be awakened to the truth; to have the scales fall from one's eyes
revelatory
ganoid scale
small (fish) scale
bud scale (scaly leaf protecting a bud)
to infuriate one's superior; to incur the anger of one's boss; to bring (a superior's) wrath down upon one
silvery scale; fish