📖 Meaning
To ask an exorbitant, sky-high price for something. It describes a situation where a seller or negotiator demands an unreasonably high price or sets overly demanding conditions, far beyond what is fair or justified.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom is a colloquial variant of the more common phrase 漫天要价 (asking a sky-high price). The expression uses 漫天, meaning to fill or cover the entire sky, as a metaphor for something boundless and excessive, paired with 叫价, meaning to call out or state a price. It has long been used in everyday Chinese to criticize merchants, vendors, or negotiators who exploit demand by demanding outrageously inflated prices. No single classical source is associated with the phrase; it arose from vernacular marketplace language.
💡 Example Usage
那个商贩漫天叫价，一件普通的衣服竟要上千元。
That vendor was asking an outrageous price—a plain ordinary shirt cost over a thousand yuan.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 漫天叫价
- Pinyin: màn tiān jiào jià
- Literal Translation: fill the sky, call out a price
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4