钻牛角尖 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. to penetrate into a bull's horn ; fig. to waste time on an insoluble or insignificant problem
• to bash one's head against a brick wall
• a wild goose chase
• a blind alley
• to split hairs

Character by character

• 钻zuāndiamond; to bore, to drill, to pierce
• 牛niúox, cow, bull
• 角jiǎoangle, corner; horn, horn-shaped
• 尖jiānsharp, pointed, acute; keen, shrewd

Idioms sharing a character

• 敲钉钻脚 qiāo dīng zuān jiǎo
• 无孔不钻 wú kǒng bù zuān
• 见缝就钻 jiàn fèng jiù zuān
• 钻坚仰高 zuān jiān yǎng gāo
• 钻故纸堆 zuān gù zhǐ duī
• 九牛一毛 jiǔ niú yī máo
• 呼牛作马 hū niú zuò mǎ
• 呼牛呼马 hū niú hū mǎ
• 土牛木马 tǔ niú mù mǎ
• 多如牛毛 duō rú niú máo

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