小试牛刀 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to give a small demonstration of one's impressive skills

Character by character

• 小xiǎosmall, tiny, insignificant
• 试shìto try, to experiment; exam, test
• 牛niúox, cow, bull
• 刀dāoknife; old coin; measure

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
• 小人得志 xiǎo rén dé zhì
• 小巧玲珑 xiǎo qiǎo líng lóng

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.