created sense approved 黄杨厄闰/黃楊厄閏 · huángyáng'èrùn · to be in adverse circumstances — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"
黄杨厄闰 / 黃楊厄閏
huángyáng'èrùn
to be in adverse circumstances
To be in straits or have a streak of bad luck. This expression refers to the legend that the boxwood tree grows one inch a year, but shrinks back one inch in a leap year; it is used as a metaphor for being stuck or facing misfortune.
黄杨 (literal) → 黄杨/黃楊 · huángyáng · boxwood 厄 (bound) → 厄 · è · hardship 闰 (bound) → 闰/閏 · rùn · intercalary
Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition