千里之堤，毁于蚁穴
qiān​lǐ​zhī​dī​huǐ​yú​yǐ​xué

a slight oversight can lead to disaster

  • created sense approved 千里之堤，毁于蚁穴/千里之堤，毀於蟻穴 · qiān​lǐ​zhī​dī​huǐ​yú​yǐ​xué · a slight oversight can lead to disaster — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    千里之堤，毁于蚁穴 / 千里之堤，毀於蟻穴

    qiān​lǐ​zhī​dī​huǐ​yú​yǐ​xué

    a slight oversight can lead to disaster

    literally meaning a thousand-mile dike can be destroyed by an ant hole; used to describe how a tiny mistake or a small amount of negligence can cause a huge catastrophe

    千里 (literal) → 千里 · qiān​lǐ · a thousand li 之 (literal) → 之 · zhī · [possessive] 堤 (literal) → 堤 · dī · dike ， (non_chinese) 毁 (literal) → 毁/毀 · huǐ · to destroy 于 (literal) → 于/於 · yú · in 蚁穴 (literal) → 蚁穴/蟻穴 · yǐ​xué · ant nest

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

    created sense