燕雀安知鴻鵠之志
yàn​què'ān​zhī​hóng​hú​zhī​zhì

how can small fry understand the ambitions of the great

  • created sense approved 燕雀安知鸿鹄之志/燕雀安知鴻鵠之志 · yàn​què'ān​zhī​hóng​hú​zhī​zhì · how can small fry understand the ambitions of the great — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    燕雀安知鸿鹄之志 / 燕雀安知鴻鵠之志

    yàn​què'ān​zhī​hóng​hú​zhī​zhì

    how can small fry understand the ambitions of the great

    literally meaning "how can the swallow and sparrow know the will of the great swan"; used to describe how people with narrow minds or common goals cannot understand the grand visions of those with great ambition

    燕雀 (literal) → 燕雀 · yàn​què · mediocre person 安知 (literal) → 安知 · ān​zhī · how can one know 鸿鹄 (literal) → 鸿鹄/鴻鵠 · hóng​hú · person of noble aspirations 之 (literal) → 之 · zhī · [possessive] 志 (literal) → 志 · zhì · will

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

    created sense