📖 Meaning
To hide one's voice and conceal one's traces, making oneself neither seen nor heard. It describes a person who deliberately withdraws from public attention and severs all contact. The idiom emphasizes a complete disappearance from social life.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom is a variant of the more common phrase 销声匿迹 (xiāo shēng nì jì), which has appeared in Chinese literary texts since the Tang and Song dynasties. The character 韬 (tāo), meaning to conceal or sheathe, replaces 销 (xiāo) to emphasize the deliberate act of hiding. No single classical source is definitively associated with this particular variant. It evolved as a literary refinement of the original phrase, used in later writings to convey a more intentional and strategic withdrawal from the world.
💡 Example Usage
他在公司倒闭后韬声匿迹，再没有人见过他。
After his company went bankrupt, he vanished without a trace, and no one ever saw him again.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 韬声匿迹
- Pinyin: tāo shēng nì jì
- Literal Translation: conceal, sound, hide, trace
- Category: Action
- Characters: 4