身陷囹圄

shēnxiànlíngyǔ

idiom #31,503

Meanings

1 to be thrown into prison
2 to be behind bars
3 to be in jail

Characters

to fall into; trapped

prison (archaic)

prison (archaic)

Examples

由于贪污，他最终身陷囹圄。

Yóuyú tānwū, tā zuìzhōng shēnxiànlíngyǔ.

Because of corruption, he eventually ended up behind bars.

尽管身陷囹圄，他仍然坚持自己的信念。

Jǐnguǎn shēnxiànlíngyǔ, tā réngrán jiānchí zìjǐ de xìnniàn.

Even though he was imprisoned, he still held to his convictions.

Tips

history

囹圄 (língyǔ) is one of the oldest words for 'jail' in Chinese, found in 《说文》 ('囹, 狱也') and 《华严音义》 ('囹圄, 周之狱名也' — the prison-name of the Zhou dynasty). 身陷 means 'one's body falls into', so the whole phrase paints the literal image of a person sunk inside the ancient Zhou prison.

register

Formal/literary. Newsroom and court-document language. Everyday speech prefers 坐牢 (zuòláo) or 进监狱 (jìn jiānyù).

Stroke Order

身 shēn

陷 xiàn

囹 líng

圄 yǔ