小人得志 — Chinese idiom
小人得志
xiǎo rén dé zhì
Meaning
- lit. a vile character flourishes
- fig. an inferior person gets into a position of power, becoming conceited and arrogant
Character by character
- 小xiǎosmall, tiny, insignificant
- 人rénman, person; people
- 得déto obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable, proper; r
- 志zhìdetermination, will; mark, sign; to record, to wri
Idioms sharing a character
- 不容小觑 bù róng xiǎo qù
- 不拘小节 bù jū xiǎo jié
- 幺麽小丑 yāo mó xiǎo chǒu
- 升斗小民 shēng dǒu xiǎo mín
- 因小失大 yīn xiǎo shī dà
- 大材小用 dà cái xiǎo yòng
- 大街小巷 dà jiē xiǎo xiàng
- 大惊小怪 dà jīng xiǎo guài
- 小巧玲珑 xiǎo qiǎo líng lóng
- 小心翼翼 xiǎo xīn yì yì
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.