📖 Meaning
A metaphor for someone who knows another person's thoughts and intentions as clearly as if they were a roundworm living inside that person's belly. It describes someone with uncanny insight into what another is thinking or feeling. Often used affectionately or half-jokingly about a close friend or partner who can read one's mind.
📜 Origin Story
No specific literary origin is recorded for this idiom. It draws on the common folk observation that roundworms (蛔虫) parasitize the human intestines and were therefore imagined to 'know' everything going on inside a person. By extension, calling someone a 'roundworm in the belly' means they seem to have direct access to another's inner thoughts. The expression circulated as colloquial vernacular Chinese before being collected into modern idiom dictionaries.
💡 Example Usage
你简直是我肚里蛔虫，我心里想什么你全知道。
You're like a roundworm in my belly—you know exactly what's on my mind.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 肚里蛔虫
- Pinyin: dù lǐ huí chóng
- Literal Translation: belly, inside, roundworm
- Category: Knowledge
- Characters: 4