贪小失大 — Chinese idiom
贪小失大
tān xiǎo shī dà
Traditional: 貪小失大
Meaning
- penny wise and pound foolish
Character by character
- 贪tāngreedy, covetous; corrupt
- 小xiǎosmall, tiny, insignificant
- 失shīto lose; to make a mistake, to neglect
- 大dàbig, great, vast, high, deep
Idioms sharing a character
- 好酒贪杯 hào jiǔ tān bēi
- 桀贪骜诈 jié tān ào zhà
- 贪天之功 tān tiān zhī gōng
- 贪婪无厌 tān lán wú yàn
- 贪官污吏 tān guān wū lì
- 贪得无厌 tān dé wú yàn
- 贪心不足 tān xīn bù zú
- 贪求无厌 tān qiú wú yàn
- 贪污腐化 tān wū fǔ huà
- 贪猥无厌 tān wěi wú yàn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.