冰凍三尺，非一日之寒
bīng​dòng​sān​chǐ​fēi​yī​rì​zhī​hán

Rome was not built in a day

  • created sense approved 冰冻三尺，非一日之寒/冰凍三尺，非一日之寒 · bīng​dòng​sān​chǐ​fēi​yī​rì​zhī​hán · Rome was not built in a day — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    冰冻三尺，非一日之寒 / 冰凍三尺，非一日之寒

    bīng​dòng​sān​chǐ​fēi​yī​rì​zhī​hán

    Rome was not built in a day

    Literal meaning: ice three feet thick is not formed by one day of cold; used to express that a current situation (often a problematic one) is the result of long-term accumulation and will not be easily resolved.

    bīng​dòng​sān​chǐ​fēi​yí​rì​zhī​hán

    冰冻 (literal) → 冰冻/冰凍 · bīng​dòng · to freeze 三 (literal) → 三 · sān · three 尺 (literal) → 尺 · chǐ · chi ， (non_chinese) 非 (literal) → 非 · fēi · not be 一日 (literal) → 一日 · yī​rì · one day (duration) 之 (literal) → 之 · zhī · [possessive] 寒 (bound) → 寒 · hán · cold

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

    created sense