黑灯瞎火

黑燈瞎火

hēidēng-xiāhuǒ

idiom

Meanings

HSK 3

黑灯瞎火的，你怎么还不开灯？

Hēidēng-xiāhuǒ de, nǐ zěnme hái bù kāidēng?

It's pitch dark - why haven't you turned on the light?

HSK 7-9

她害怕一个人走在黑灯瞎火的小巷里。

Tā hàipà yī gè rén zǒu zài hēidēng-xiāhuǒ de xiǎoxiàng lǐ.

She is afraid of walking alone in a pitch-dark alley.

Colloquial, vivid. 瞎 literally means 'blind', picturing lamps so dark they are 'blind'. Common in spoken Mandarin, rarer in formal writing.

黑 hēi

灯 dēng

瞎 xiā

火 huǒ