📖 Meaning
Literally 'stabbing the heart and soaking into the marrow.' It describes speech or remarks that are so bitterly cutting and venomous that they wound a person to the core, becoming almost unbearable. Used for words deliberately aimed to inflict deep emotional pain.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the modern Chinese story 《李班长学文化》 by the writer 宋文茂. In one scene, a character named 秀英 watches 祝怀成 sit off to one side making sarcastic, venomous remarks that cut to the bone, and she worries his words will provoke fresh trouble. The phrase thus came to characterize speech that stabs the heart and seeps into the marrow of a person, conveying cruelty of tongue rather than physical violence.
💡 Example Usage
他那几句戳心灌髓的话，把在场所有人都气得说不出话来。
His few piercing, venomous words left everyone present so angry they could not speak.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 戳心灌髓
- Pinyin: chuō xīn guàn suǐ
- Literal Translation: pierce heart, infuse marrow
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4