📖 Meaning
This idiom uses flowers and grass as metaphors for objects of romantic interest. It describes someone who goes about leaving romantic attachments everywhere, flirting and seducing indiscriminately. It most often refers to a man who is fickle and promiscuous in his dealings with women.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Yuan dynasty playwright Shang Dao's (商衜) sanqu work 'Yi Zhi Hua · Yuan Ji' (一枝花·远寄, A Sprig of Flowers: Sent from Afar), which contains the lines '粘花惹草心，招揽风流事' — a heart that clings to flowers and provokes grass, gathering up amorous affairs. The imagery of flowers and grass as objects of desire draws on a long tradition in Chinese poetry of associating blossoms with fleeting beauty and temptation. Over time the expression became a common idiom for describing someone who habitually pursues romantic dalliances outside of committed relationships.
💡 Example Usage
他整日粘花惹草，妻子终于忍无可忍提出离婚。
He spent his days chasing after women, and his wife finally could bear it no longer and filed for divorce.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 粘花惹草
- Pinyin: zhān huā rě cǎo
- Literal Translation: stick to flowers, provoke grass
- Category: Lifestyle
- Characters: 4