打小算盘 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. to count on a narrow abacus ; petty and scheming selfishly
• concerned with petty interests
• selfish and uncaring of the interests of others
• bean counter

Character by character

• 打dǎto attack, to beat, to hit, to strike
• 小xiǎosmall, tiny, insignificant
• 算suànto calculate, to count; to figure, to plan
• 盘pántray, plate, dish; to examine

Idioms sharing a character

• 一炮打响 yī pào dǎ xiǎng
• 一网打尽 yī wǎng dǎ jìn
• 倒打一耙 dào dǎ yī pá
• 包打天下 bāo dǎ tiān xià
• 乔装打扮 qiáo zhuāng dǎ bàn
• 单打独斗 dān dǎ dú dòu
• 围城打援 wéi chéng dǎ yuán
• 宽打窄用 kuān dǎ zhǎi yòng
• 打入冷宫 dǎ rù lěng gōng
• 打家劫舍 dǎ jiā jié shè

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.