📖 Meaning
All day and all night; day and night without cease. It describes continuous, unbroken activity or existence spanning the full hours of day and night.
📜 Origin Story
This expression appears in the modern literature of early twentieth-century China. The writer Yu Dafu used it in his 1921 novella 'Sinking' (《沉沦》), describing a protagonist who shut himself away in his small study all day and all night. The phrase compounds the character 镇 (meaning 'whole' or 'entire') with both 日 (day) and 夜 (night) to emphasize unbroken duration. A later usage appears in Duanmu Hongliang's 'The Torrent of the Hunhe River,' where it describes the ceaseless flow of river water.
💡 Example Usage
他镇日镇夜地守在母亲病床前，寸步不离。
He kept watch at his mother's bedside all day and all night, never leaving for a moment.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 镇日镇夜
- Pinyin: zhèn rì zhèn yè
- Literal Translation: whole, day, whole, night
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4