卷地皮

juǎndìpí

idiom

Meanings

1 to roll up the ground
2 to strip a place bare through extortion
3 rapacious official plunder

Characters

Examples

那些贪官简直是卷地皮，百姓怨声载道。

Nàxiē tānguān jiǎnzhí shì juǎn dìpí, bǎixìng yuànshēng-zàidào.

Those corrupt officials are stripping the place bare — the people are up in arms.

县官卷地皮三年，民不聊生。

Xiànguān juǎn dìpí sān nián, mín bù liáo shēng.

Three years of the magistrate's plunder left the people unable to survive.

Tips

history

From a Tang poem by Lu Tong (卢仝): 扬州恶百姓，疑我卷地皮 — bad folks in Yangzhou suspect me of rolling up the earth itself. The image is an official so greedy he'd carry off the very topsoil.

Stroke Order

卷 juǎn

地 dì

皮 pí