📖 Meaning
Describes someone whose movements are hurried and whose facial expression shows panic or alarm. It conveys a visible state of anxiety and disarray in both demeanor and bearing.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom has no single authoritative classical source and is a later compounded expression. It combines 形色 (one's outward expression and demeanor) with 仓皇 (flustered, thrown into confusion), a word seen in Tang and Song prose and poetry to describe panic. Similar phrasing appears in Ming and Qing vernacular fiction and historical commentary, where fleeing or alarmed figures are described as 仓皇 in expression and manner.
💡 Example Usage
他形色仓皇地冲进办公室，连背包都忘了放下。
He rushed into the office in a visible panic, forgetting even to set down his backpack.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 形色仓皇
- Pinyin: xíng sè cāng huáng
- Literal Translation: expression and appearance, hurried and flustered
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4