弃本逐末 qìběnzhúmò to neglect the fundamentals for the trivial Origin Definitions Defs Strokes Stroke Words Sentences Sents 弃 棄 qì verb to abandon to discard; to throw away; to relinquish; to give up本 běn proper nounadverb origin the source, foundation, or fundamental part of something逐末 zhúmò to pursue trivial things to neglect the fundamentals and focus only on minor details or non-essentials