Situations
一觸卽發
일촉즉발
yī chù jí fā
Il-chok-jeuk-bal
一
한 일
觸
닿을 촉
卽
곧 즉
發
쏠 발
Character by character
Meaning
One touch and it goes off — an extremely volatile state.
Origin
Widely used since the modern era for a standoff stretched taut.
How it is used
Common in reporting on confrontations on the brink of breaking out.
Hanja一觸卽發
Simplified一触即发
Korean reading일촉즉발
Pinyinyī chù jí fā
Frequently asked questions
Q. What does Il-chok-jeuk-bal mean?
一觸卽發 · One touch and it goes off — an extremely volatile state.
Q. Where does Il-chok-jeuk-bal come from?
Widely used since the modern era for a standoff stretched taut.
Q. How is Il-chok-jeuk-bal used?
Common in reporting on confrontations on the brink of breaking out.
Idioms in the same group
四面楚歌 Sa-myeon-cho-gaChu songs on all four sides — surrounded with nowhere to turn.進退兩難 Jin-toe-yang-nanHard to advance and hard to retreat.累卵之危 Nu-ran-ji-wiAs precarious as a stack of eggs.風前燈火 Pung-jeon-deung-hwaA lamp flame before the wind — an extremely precarious state.五里霧中 O-ri-mu-jungInside a fog five li deep — completely unable to make sense of things.雪上加霜 Seol-sang-ga-sangFrost on top of snow — one misfortune stacked on another.
The idioms used in Korea mix phrases from the Chinese classics with ones coined in Korea. Where an expression is not used in China, the entry says so.