杯水车薪 — Chinese idiom
杯水车薪
bēi shuǐ chē xīn
Traditional: 杯水車薪
Meaning
- lit. a cup of water on a burning cart of firewood ; fig. an utterly inadequate measure
Character by character
- 杯bēicup, glass; measure word for liquids
- 水shuǐwater, liquid, lotion, juice
- 车chēcart, vehicle; to move in a cart
- 薪xīnfuel, firewood; salary
Idioms sharing a character
- 好酒贪杯 hào jiǔ tān bēi
- 推杯换盏 tuī bēi huàn zhǎn
- 杯弓蛇影 bēi gōng shé yǐng
- 杯盘狼藉 bēi pán láng jí
- 杯酒解怨 bēi jiǔ jiě yuàn
- 杯酒言欢 bēi jiǔ yán huān
- 一清如水 yī qīng rú shuǐ
- 似水年华 sì shuǐ nián huá
- 出水芙蓉 chū shuǐ fú róng
- 如鱼得水 rú yú dé shuǐ
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.