喧宾夺主 — Chinese idiom

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.