📖 Meaning
This idiom describes the condition of going hungry for an entire day, from morning to night. It conveys the hardship and suffering of having nothing to eat throughout the day.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom is formed from two classical Chinese terms: 枵腹 (xiāo fù), meaning an empty stomach, and 终朝 (zhōng cháo), meaning the whole day or from dawn to dusk. The character 枵 appears in classical texts such as the Book of Odes (诗经) to denote emptiness or hollowness. 终朝 is also a classical expression found in ancient literature referring to the passage of a full day. Together they form a vivid description of prolonged hunger, though no single definitive literary source for the exact four-character combination is recorded.
💡 Example Usage
他为了省钱，常常枵腹终朝，身体日渐消瘦。
To save money, he often went hungry all day long, and his body grew increasingly thin.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 枵腹终朝
- Pinyin: xiāo fù zhōng cháo
- Literal Translation: empty stomach, whole day
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4