满目疮痍

滿目瘡痍
mǎnmùchuāngyí
idiom #48,510

Meanings

  1. 1 a scene of devastation everywhere one looks
  2. 2 wounds and ruins meeting the eye on every side
  3. 3 utterly ravaged

Examples

Dìzhèn guòhòu, cūnzhuāng mǎnmùchuāngyí.
After the earthquake, the village was a scene of utter devastation.
Zhàn hòu de chéngshì mǎnmùchuāngyí, bǎifèidàixīng.
The post-war city was in ruins everywhere you looked, with everything waiting to be rebuilt.
Táifēng xíjuǎn guòhòu, yánhǎi dìqū mǎnmùchuāngyí.
After the typhoon swept through, the coastal areas were devastated.

Tips

history
From Du Fu's Tang-dynasty 《》: 乾坤何时 — 'heaven and earth are full of wounds; when will my grief end?' Written during the An Lushan rebellion, it captures a nation in ruins.
memory
= sore, = wound — literally 'eyes full of sores and wounds'. The radical in both characters is the 'sickness' radical.

Stroke Order

mǎn
chuāng