📖 Meaning
Describes a state of being utterly terrified and utterly submissive due to extreme fear. The idiom conveys a dread so profound that it shatters one's courage and chills one's heart, leaving the person cowering and compliant.
📜 Origin Story
No single classical text is definitively cited as the origin of this idiom. It is a compound expression drawing on two traditional Chinese metaphors for fear: a broken gallbladder (胆破), since the gallbladder was believed to house courage, and a chilled heart (心寒), representing deep dread. Similar phrasings appear scattered across classical literature where authors described battlefield terror or political intimidation. Over time the two images merged into this four-character form to depict someone reduced to total submission by fright.
💡 Example Usage
敌军见我方援兵赶到，个个胆破心寒，纷纷弃械投降。
Seeing our reinforcements arrive, the enemy soldiers were utterly terrified and surrendered their weapons one after another.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 胆破心寒
- Pinyin: dǎn pò xīn hán
- Literal Translation: gallbladder broken, heart cold
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4