📖 Meaning
Describes a state where one's entire body feels weak and the limbs go limp and powerless. It is synonymous with the idiom 骨软筋酥 (bones soft, muscles limp). Often used to depict someone overcome by fear, exhaustion, or pleasure to the point of physical collapse.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Ming dynasty novel 《醒世姻缘传》 (Marriage Destinies to Awaken the World), attributed to the author 西周生. In Chapter 61, it is written that with a single fart from '心月狐' (the Heart Moon Fox constellation), '井木犴' (the Well Wood Wolf constellation) falls prostrate on the ground, its bones soft and flesh limp. The vivid metaphor uses zodiacal constellations to humorously illustrate total bodily collapse and helpless submission before overwhelming force.
💡 Example Usage
听到这个消息，他吓得骨软肉酥，瘫坐在地上。
Hearing the news, he was so terrified that his whole body went limp and he collapsed onto the ground.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 骨软肉酥
- Pinyin: gǔ ruǎn ròu sū
- Literal Translation: bone, soft, flesh, limp
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4