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瘦骨嶙峋

shòugǔlínxún
idiom #36,260

Meanings

  1. 1 skin and bones
  2. 2 emaciated, gauntly thin
  3. 3 (of a person or animal) so thin the bones jut out

Examples

经过几个月的疾病，他变得瘦骨嶙峋。
Jīngguò jǐ ge yuè de jíbìng, tā biàn de shòugǔlínxún.
After several months of illness, he became gaunt and bony.
那只流浪狗瘦骨嶙峋，让人心疼。
Nà zhī liúlàng gǒu shòugǔlínxún, ràng rén xīnténg.
The stray dog was so emaciated it broke your heart.

Tips

memory
嶙峋 (lín xún) literally describes craggy, jutting rocks — the kind of jagged outcrops you'd see on a Chinese landscape painting. Apply that image to a body: bones poking out like rocky ridges. The metaphor is the whole point of the idiom.
history
Recorded in Gao Yunlan's 1956 novel 《小城春秋》 (Xiǎochéng Chūnqiū, 'Spring and Autumn of a Small Town'): 'Xiu Wei saw a bare-chested, emaciated child laborer carrying a basin of plaster across a swaying scaffold' — locking the phrase to images of poverty and overwork.

Stroke Order

瘦 shòu
骨 gǔ
嶙 lín
峋 xún