Chinese idiom · 成语
滴水成冰
Meaning
Water freezes as it drips; bitterly cold weather.
Character by character
Origin and story
Literary descriptionThis expression pictures water freezing almost as soon as it drips. The Ministry of Education dictionary cites Xing shi heng yan, volume 27, where a woman is forced to wash dirty clothes even in intensely freezing weather and is then scolded for not getting them clean. The weather description heightens the cruelty of her treatment.
A related form, 滴水成冻, appears in Qian Yi's Song work Nanbu Xinshu. Both texts use extreme cold to make their scenes immediately vivid to a reader. In ordinary speech 滴水成冰 means extremely cold conditions; it does not normally stand for every kind of hardship.
In everyday life
外面冷得滴水成冰，出门前记得戴手套。
It's bitterly cold outside; remember your gloves before going out.
An emphatic weather description, usually about literal cold.