📖 Meaning
Describes sweating so profusely that the sweat soaks through one's back and clothes. By extension, it conveys feeling deeply ashamed or extremely uneasy, as if one were drenched in nervous perspiration.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom is a descriptive compound rather than a story drawn from a single historical episode. It pairs 流汗 (sweating) with 浃背 (soaking the back), imagery that recurs across Chinese historical writing to depict extreme physical exertion, intense fear, or acute shame. The figurative sense of deep embarrassment or uneasiness draws on the same physiological metaphor found in the closely related expression 汗流浃背, which traces back to Han-dynasty texts such as the Book of Han (汉书), where officials would sweat through their garments in the overwhelming presence of the emperor. Over time the phrase came to serve both as a literal description of heavy sweating and as a figurative expression for mortifying discomfort.
💡 Example Usage
烈日下搬运了一整天的货物，工人们都流汗浃背。
After hauling goods under the scorching sun all day, the workers were soaked with sweat down their backs.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 流汗浃背
- Pinyin: liú hàn jiā bèi
- Literal Translation: flow sweat, soak back
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4