贪小失大 — Chinese idiom

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.