以水投石
yǐ​shuǐ​tóu​shí

to act in vain

  • created sense approved 以水投石 · yǐ​shuǐ​tóu​shí · to act in vain — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    以水投石

    yǐ​shuǐ​tóu​shí

    to act in vain

    to throw water at a stone; used to describe a futile effort or an action that has no effect because it is ill-matched to the target

    以 (literal) → 以 · yǐ · by means of 水 (literal) → 水 · shuǐ · water 投 (literal) → 投 · tóu · to throw 石 (literal) → 石 · shí · stone

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense