喧宾夺主 — Chinese idiom
喧宾夺主
xuān bīn duó zhǔ
Traditional: 喧賓奪主
Meaning
- lit. the voice of the guest overwhelms that of the host
- fig. a minor player upstages the main attraction
- minor details obscure the main point
- the sauce is better than the fish
Character by character
- 喧xuānlively, noisy; to clamor, to talk loudly
- 宾bīnguest, visitor; surname; submit
- 夺duóto rob, to snatch, to take by force
- 主zhǔto own; to host; master; host; lord
Idioms sharing a character
- 哀告宾服 āi gào bīn fú
- 相敬如宾 xiāng jìng rú bīn
- 宾主尽欢 bīn zhǔ jìn huān
- 宾客盈门 bīn kè yíng mén
- 宾朋满座 bīn péng mǎn zuò
- 宾朋盈门 bīn péng yíng mén
- 你争我夺 nǐ zhēng wǒ duó
- 夺门而出 duó mén ér chū
- 强词夺理 qiǎng cí duó lǐ
- 横刀夺爱 héng dāo duó ài
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.