牛鼎烹鸡
niú​dǐng​pēng​jī

to swat a fly with a cannon

  • created sense approved 牛鼎烹鸡/牛鼎烹雞 · niú​dǐng​pēng​jī · to swat a fly with a cannon — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    牛鼎烹鸡 / 牛鼎烹雞

    niú​dǐng​pēng​jī

    to swat a fly with a cannon

    to use a large cauldron intended for cooking an ox to boil a chicken; to waste great talent on a trivial task

    牛 (literal) → 牛 · niú · ox 鼎 (literal) → 鼎 · dǐng · cauldron 烹 (literal) → 烹 · pēng · to cook 鸡 (literal) → 鸡/雞 · jī · chicken

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

    created sense