大材小用 — Chinese idiom
大材小用
dà cái xiǎo yòng
Meaning
- to use a talented person in a role far beneath their ability; a waste of talent
Character by character
- 大dàbig, great, vast, high, deep
- 材cáitimber; material, stuff; talent
- 小xiǎosmall, tiny, insignificant
- 用yòngto use, to employ, to apply; use
Idioms sharing a character
- 不识大体 bù shí dà tǐ
- 久仰大名 jiǔ yǎng dà míng
- 倾盆大雨 qīng pén dà yǔ
- 元恶大憝 yuán è dà duì
- 冒大不韪 mào dà bù wěi
- 功莫大焉 gōng mò dà yān
- 勃然大怒 bó rán dà nù
- 博大精深 bó dà jīng shēn
- 吃大锅饭 chī dà guō fàn
- 哄堂大笑 hōng táng dà xiào
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.