📖 Meaning
Describes intense suffering, searing pain, or burning anxiety. The imagery evokes being fried in hot oil and roasted over fire, conveying acute physical or mental torment that one cannot endure calmly.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom appears in Guo Chengqing's novel 'Da Dao Ji' (大刀记), Chapter 10, where a character feels something surging violently in his chest, accelerating the flow of blood, followed by a searing, roiling pain as if fried in oil and scorched by fire. It draws on the visceral sensation of extreme heat to express unbearable torment. Ma Feng also employs the phrase in 'Tai Yang Gang Gang Chu Shan' (太阳刚刚出山) to depict overwhelming, restless anxiety.
💡 Example Usage
他等不到消息，急得心里油煎火燎一般。
Unable to wait for news, he was so anxious it felt as though his heart were being fried in oil and scorched by fire.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 油煎火燎
- Pinyin: yóu jiān huǒ liáo
- Literal Translation: oil, fry, fire, roast
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4