对牛弹琴 — Chinese idiom
对牛弹琴
duì niú tán qín
Traditional: 對牛彈琴
Meaning
- lit. to play the lute to a cow
- fig. offering a treat to an unappreciative audience
- to cast pearls before swine
- caviar to the general
- to preach to deaf ears
- to talk over sb's head
Character by character
- 对duìcorrect, right; facing, opposed
- 牛niúox, cow, bull
- 弹tánbullet, pellet, shell; elastic, springy
- 琴qínChinese lute or guitar, string instrument
Idioms sharing a character
- 冤家对头 yuān jiā duì tóu
- 唱对台戏 chàng duì tái xì
- 对症下药 duì zhèng xià yào
- 对答如流 duì dá rú liú
- 对簿公堂 duì bù gōng táng
- 对酒当歌 duì jiǔ dāng gē
- 死无对证 sǐ wú duì zhèng
- 无言可对 wú yán kě duì
- 牛衣对泣 niú yī duì qì
- 针锋相对 zhēn fēng xiāng duì
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.