火烧眉毛

火燒眉毛
huǒshāo-méimao
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 extremely urgent
  2. 2 a burning emergency

Examples

HSK 6
Tā zǒngshì tuō dào huǒshāo-méimao de shíhou cái kāishǐ fùxí.
He always puts off revising until the very last minute.
HSK 7-9
Lùnwén míngtiān jiù yào jiāo le, zhēnshì huǒshāo-méimao.
The paper is due tomorrow: it's a real emergency.

Tips

history
In the Song collection of Chan sayings 《五灯会元》, a master, asked for the most urgent phrase of all, answers 火烧眉毛. The bookish noun form is 燃眉之急 "an urgent need".

Stroke Order

火 huǒ
烧 shāo
眉 méi
毛 máo