yǐ​zhū​tán​què

to give much for little

  • created sense approved 以珠弹雀/以珠彈雀 · yǐ​zhū​tán​què · to give much for little — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    以珠弹雀 / 以珠彈雀

    yǐ​zhū​tán​què

    to give much for little

    To shoot at birds with pearls; to make a huge investment for a very small return, or to lack a sense of priority in one's actions. Based on a story in the classic text [[庄子|莊子|zhuang1 zi3]] where a man uses a legendary pearl to shoot at a bird.

    以 (literal) → 以 · yǐ · by means of 珠 (literal) → 珠 · zhū · pearl 弹 (literal) → 弹/彈 · tán · to play; to flick 雀 (literal) → 雀 · què · sparrow

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

    created sense