📖 Meaning
Describes a person who is both frivolous and cunning, with a slick and shrewd demeanor. It portrays someone smooth-talking and calculating but lacking sincerity or substance. The term carries a distinctly negative connotation of being oily and untrustworthy.
📜 Origin Story
This phrase appears in modern Chinese literature, most notably in Liang Bin's novel Red Flag Chronicle (《红旗谱》), Chapter 24. In the passage, a character named Jiang Tao waits outside a gate while Zhu Laozhong enters to deliver a letter, and an oily, cunning fellow inspects it before taking it inside. The expression captures the image of someone with an overly groomed appearance and a slippery, calculating mind. It has since become a common colloquial idiom for slick, shrewd, and untrustworthy people.
💡 Example Usage
那个油头滑脑的家伙总喜欢占别人的便宜。
That slick, cunning fellow is always trying to take advantage of others.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 油头滑脑
- Pinyin: yóu tóu huá nǎo
- Literal Translation: oil, head, slippery, brain
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4