挑花眼

tiāohuāyǎn
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 to be dazzled by too many choices
  2. 2 to be bewildered (lit. to pick until your eyes blur)

Examples

Shāngchǎng lǐ qúnzi tài duō le, wǒ dōu tiāohuāyǎn le.
There are so many dresses in the mall, my eyes are blurring from picking.
Càidān zhème cháng, tiāohuāyǎn yě diǎn bù chūlái.
The menu is so long I can't even decide what to order.

Tips

usage
Almost always used with in the pattern 挑花眼 — a humorous, conversational complaint that there are too many options. Modern equivalent of the English 'choice paralysis'.
memory
Literally 'pick until flowers in eyes' — (huāyǎn) on its own means 'blurry vision/farsightedness' (the visual 'flowers' you see when your eyes can't focus). Pick so much that your eyes go fuzzy.

Stroke Order

tiāo
huā
yǎn