焦头烂额 in English jiao1 tou2 lan4 e2 Meaning

Meanings

  • literally (word for word) badly burned about the head (from trying to put out a fire) (idiomatic expression)
  • metaphorically hard-pressed
  • under pressure (from a heavy workload, creditors and so on)

Simplified Characters

焦 头 烂 额

Traditional Characters

焦 頭 爛 額

Pinyin

jiao1 tou2 lan4 e2

Literal

Literal explanation, with pronunciation and meaning of each character.

焦jiao1surname Jiao 头tou2head 烂lan4soft 额e2variant of 額|额[e2]