玩物丧志 — Chinese idiom
玩物丧志
wán wù sàng zhì
Traditional: 玩物喪志
Meaning
- lit. trifling destroys the will ; infatuation with fine details prevents one making progress
- excessive attention to trivia saps the will
Character by character
- 玩wánto play with, to joke, to entertain
- 物wùthing, substance, matter; creature
- 丧sàngmourning; mourn; funeral
- 志zhìdetermination, will; mark, sign; to record, to wri
Idioms sharing a character
- 吃喝玩乐 chī hē wán lè
- 玩世不恭 wán shì bù gōng
- 玩火自焚 wán huǒ zì fén
- 价廉物美 jià lián wù měi
- 博物洽闻 bó wù qià wén
- 厚德载物 hòu dé zài wù
- 囊中取物 náng zhōng qǔ wù
- 地大物博 dì dà wù bó
- 待人接物 dài rén jiē wù
- 恃才傲物 shì cái ào wù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.