小隙沉舟
xiǎo​xì​chén​zhōu

a small leak will sink a great ship

  • created sense approved 小隙沉舟 · xiǎo​xì​chén​zhōu · a small leak will sink a great ship — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    小隙沉舟

    xiǎo​xì​chén​zhōu

    a small leak will sink a great ship

    Idiom meaning that a tiny crack or hole can cause a boat to sink; used to illustrate that a small mistake can lead to a major disaster.

    小 (literal) → 小 · xiǎo · small 隙 (literal) → 隙 · xì · crack 沉 (literal) → 沉 · chén · to sink 舟 (literal) → 舟 · zhōu · boat

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

    created sense