捡了芝麻丢了西瓜
jiǎn​le​zhī​ma​diū​le​xī​guā

penny wise and pound foolish

  • created sense approved 捡了芝麻丢了西瓜/撿了芝麻丟了西瓜 · jiǎn​le​zhī​ma​diū​le​xī​guā · penny wise and pound foolish — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    捡了芝麻丢了西瓜 / 撿了芝麻丟了西瓜

    jiǎn​le​zhī​ma​diū​le​xī​guā

    penny wise and pound foolish

    To focus on small, trivial gains at the expense of something much more important; literally to pick up a sesame seed while losing a watermelon

    捡 (literal) → 捡/撿 · jiǎn · to pick up 了 (bound) → 了 · le · [aspect marker] 芝麻 (literal) → 芝麻 · zhī​ma · sesame 丢 (literal) → 丢/丟 · diū · to lose 了 (bound) → 了 · le · [aspect marker] 西瓜 (literal) → 西瓜 · xī​guā · watermelon

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

    created sense