📖 Meaning
This idiom describes someone who falls ill and never recovers, remaining bedridden until death. It conveys the idea that once a person takes to their bed with sickness, they never rise again. It is typically used to describe a fatal or incurable illness.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Yuan dynasty playwright Zheng Guangzu's drama 'The Soul of Qian'nu Leaves Her Body' (倩女离魂). In the second act, it recounts how the girl Qian'nu bade farewell to the scholar Wang at the Willow-Pulling Pavilion. After returning home, she fell ill and became bedridden, never to recover. The phrase thus came to signify falling grievously ill with no hope of getting better.
💡 Example Usage
自从染上重病，他便一卧不起，再也没能下床。
After contracting a serious illness, he became bedridden and was never able to get out of bed again.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 一卧不起
- Pinyin: yī wò bù qǐ
- Literal Translation: one, lie down, not, rise
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4