黑灯瞎火

黑燈瞎火

hēidēngxiāhuǒ

idiom

Meanings

1 pitch dark; without any light
2 in the dead of darkness

Characters

Examples

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?

她害怕一个人走在黑灯瞎火的小巷里。

Tā hàipà yīgè rén zǒu zài hēidēng xiāhuǒ de xiǎoxiàng lǐ.

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

Tips

register

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

Stroke Order

黑 hēi

灯 dēng

瞎 xiā

火 huǒ