弄巧成拙
nòng​qiǎo​chéng​zhuō

to outsmart oneself

  • created sense approved 弄巧成拙 · nòng​qiǎo​chéng​zhuō · to outsmart oneself — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    弄巧成拙

    nòng​qiǎo​chéng​zhuō

    to outsmart oneself

    to try to be clever and end up making things worse; to overreach oneself and fail; to end up with egg on one's face

    nòng​qiǎo​chéng​zhuó

    弄 (literal) → 弄 · nòng · to play with 巧 (literal) → 巧 · qiǎo · skillful 成 (literal) → 成 · chéng · to become 拙 (literal) → 拙 · zhuō · clumsy

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

    created sense