偷鸡不着反折一把米
tōu​jī​bù​zháo​fǎn​zhé​yī​bǎ​mǐ

to go for wool and come back shorn

  • created sense approved 偷鸡不着反折一把米/偷雞不著反折一把米 · tōu​jī​bù​zháo​fǎn​zhé​yī​bǎ​mǐ · to go for wool and come back shorn — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    偷鸡不着反折一把米 / 偷雞不著反折一把米

    tōu​jī​bù​zháo​fǎn​zhé​yī​bǎ​mǐ

    to go for wool and come back shorn

    to lose even what one already had while attempting to gain something more; to suffer a loss in a failed attempt to profit by deceit or theft; literally, to fail to steal a chicken and lose a handful of rice instead

    偷 (literal) → 偷 · tōu · to steal 鸡 (literal) → 鸡/雞 · jī · chicken 不着 (literal) → 不着/不著 · bù​zháo · unsuccessful 反 (literal) → 反 · fǎn · on the contrary 折 (literal) → 折 · zhé · to suffer loss 一把 (literal) → 一把 · yī​bǎ · a handful 米 (literal) → 米 · mǐ · rice

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

    created sense