大而无当 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• grandiose but impractical
• large but of no real use

Character by character

• 大dàbig, great, vast, high, deep
• 而érand, and then, and yet; but
• 无wúno, not; lacking, -less
• 当dàngappropriate, timely; to act, to serve; the sound o

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.