水浅养不住大鱼
shuǐ​qiǎn​yǎng​bù​zhù​dà​yú

shallow waters cannot harbor big fish

  • created sense approved 水浅养不住大鱼/水淺養不住大魚 · shuǐ​qiǎn​yǎng​bù​zhù​dà​yú · shallow waters cannot harbor big fish — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    水浅养不住大鱼 / 水淺養不住大魚

    shuǐ​qiǎn​yǎng​bù​zhù​dà​yú

    shallow waters cannot harbor big fish

    Literally means shallow waters cannot harbor big fish; figuratively suggests that a small organization cannot retain people of great talent or ambition.

    水 (literal) → 水 · shuǐ · water 浅 (literal) → 浅/淺 · qiǎn · shallow 养 (literal) → 养/養 · yǎng · to raise 不住 (literal) → 不住 · bù​zhù · unable to 大 (literal) → 大 · dà · big 鱼 (literal) → 鱼/魚 · yú · fish

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

    created sense