引玉之砖 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. a brick thrown to prompt others to produce a jade
• fig. a modest suggestion intended to prompt others to come forward with better ideas

Character by character

• 引yǐnto pull, to stretch; to draw; to attract
• 玉yùjade, gem, precious stone
• 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of following ph
• 砖zhuāntile, brick

Idioms sharing a character

• 引以为傲 yǐn yǐ wéi ào
• 引以为憾 yǐn yǐ wéi hàn
• 引以为戒 yǐn yǐ wéi jiè
• 引以为荣 yǐn yǐ wéi róng
• 引吭高歌 yǐn háng gāo gē
• 引水入墙 yǐn shuǐ rù qiáng
• 引狗入寨 yǐn gǒu rù zhài
• 引狼入室 yǐn láng rù shì
• 引经据典 yǐn jīng jù diǎn
• 引蛇出洞 yǐn shé chū dòng

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