📖 Meaning
To drag and pull someone roughly in all directions without care for their person. It vividly describes using brute physical force to haul someone along against their will. The phrase emphasizes the violent and uncontrolled manner of the dragging.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom appears in Ming Dynasty literature. In Luo Guanzhong's 'San Sui Ping Yao Zhuan' (三遂平妖传), it describes how attendants Zhang Qian and Li Wan seized a man and dragged him into the government office without any explanation. It also appears in Xu Wei's 'Ying Lie Zhuan' (英烈传), where a rider named Yexian falls from his horse but gets his foot caught in the stirrup, and the panicked horse drags him violently across the ground.
💡 Example Usage
那几个衙役不由分说，将他横拖倒扯地带走了。
The yamen runners, without any explanation, hauled him off roughly, dragging and pulling him away.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 横拖倒扯
- Pinyin: héng tuō dào chě
- Literal Translation: horizontally, drag, upside down, pull
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4