天花乱坠

tiān huā luàn zhuì

to talk something up in glowing, unreliable terms

Character by character

天tiān
heaven

花huā
flowers

乱luàn
wildly

坠zhuì
fall

推销员把这款产品说得天花乱坠，结果用了不到一个月就坏了。

The salesman praised the product to the skies, and it broke within a month.

Tone: negative (criticism).

A Buddhist legend: a monk preached so movingly that flowers rained down from heaven. Now almost always 说得天花乱坠, of sales talk and empty promises.

Learn this in Lesson 90 · HSK 6–7: 佛教来到中国 (How Buddhism became Chinese)

A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.