📖 Meaning
Literally refers to rusted, broken, and useless copper and iron objects. By extension, it describes any worn-out, worthless junk or discarded items of no value. It is often used metaphorically to belittle something as shabby, dilapidated, or utterly worthless.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom has no single classical source; it arose from the everyday life of common people in pre-modern China. Blacksmiths and scrap dealers would sort through discarded metalwares, separating usable material from genuinely worthless fragments. The phrase captures the practical assessment that heavily corroded copper and rusted iron cannot be reforged or repurposed. Over time, it entered colloquial speech as a vivid metaphor for anything broken beyond repair or of negligible worth.
💡 Example Usage
院子里堆满了破铜烂铁，连下脚的地方都没有。
The yard was piled high with scrap metal and junk, leaving not even a place to stand.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 破铜烂铁
- Pinyin: pò tóng làn tiě
- Literal Translation: broken copper, rotten iron
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4