堤潰蟻穴
dī​kuì​yǐ​xué

a small oversight can cause a great disaster

  • created sense approved 堤溃蚁穴/堤潰蟻穴 · dī​kuì​yǐ​xué · a small oversight can cause a great disaster — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    堤溃蚁穴 / 堤潰蟻穴

    dī​kuì​yǐ​xué

    a small oversight can cause a great disaster

    Literally meaning that an ant nest can cause a dam to collapse, used to warn that slight negligence or small mistakes can lead to major catastrophe.

    tí​kuì​yǐ​xuè

    堤 (literal) → 堤 · dī · dike 溃 (literal) → 溃/潰 · kuì · to burst 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