📖 Meaning
To forcefully push open a door and rush out. It describes someone acting in a sudden, urgent, and impatient manner, unable to wait any longer before bursting out of a room or building.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom does not trace back to a single classical text or historical anecdote. It emerged as a vivid descriptive phrase in vernacular Chinese fiction of the Ming and Qing dynasties, where authors used it to depict characters who, overwhelmed by emotion or urgency, could no longer contain themselves and dashed out through the door. It appears in Qing-era novels such as Li Jia-bao's 'Guānchǎng Xiànxíng Jì' (The Bureaucrats: A True Account). Over time it became a fixed four-character expression.
💡 Example Usage
听到这个噩耗，他连外套都来不及穿就夺门而出。
Hearing the dreadful news, he rushed out the door without even stopping to grab a coat.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 夺门而出
- Pinyin: duó mén ér chū
- Literal Translation: snatch, door, and, exit
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4