📖 Meaning
To be thrown into a panic and completely at a loss for what to do. It describes a state of flustered confusion and helplessness when caught off guard by an unexpected situation. The phrase is a variant of the more common form 张皇失措.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom appears in Ba Jin's novel Autumn (秋), the second installment of his famous Torrents Trilogy (激流三部曲), written in the early Republican era of China. In the cited passage, a character looks around in all directions in a state of panic. The term pairs 张惶, meaning alarmed and flustered, with 失措, meaning to lose one's composure or not know how to act. It is a variant writing of the more widely used 张皇失措, which dates back to earlier Ming and Qing dynasty literature.
💡 Example Usage
听到这个坏消息，他顿时张惶失措，不知该如何是好。
Upon hearing the bad news, he was instantly thrown into a panic and did not know what to do.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 张惶失措
- Pinyin: zhāng huáng shī cuò
- Literal Translation: panicked and alarmed, lose, composure
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4