📖 Meaning
Describes writing or work done hastily and carelessly, with quantity prioritized over quality. It implies shoddy craftsmanship and a lack of attention to detail.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom is famously cited from Lu Xun's (鲁迅) essay "善于翻译的通信" (Letters on Skilled Translation) in his essay collection 二心集 (Two Hearts, 1932), a modern-era work. In it, Lu Xun criticized the low quality of translations circulating at the time, remarking that crudely made translations were the work of either incompetent translators or opportunistic booksellers chasing profit. Though its component characters are traditional, Lu Xun's pointed usage cemented its modern meaning of careless, mass-produced work of inferior quality.
💡 Example Usage
这家工厂粗制滥造的产品很快就被市场淘汰了。
The factory's shoddy, hastily-made products were quickly phased out of the market.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 粗制滥造
- Pinyin: cū zhì làn zào
- Literal Translation: crude, make, excessive, produce
- Category: Quality
- Characters: 4