chèng tuó suī xiǎo yā qiān jīn

Traditional: 秤砣雖小壓千斤

秤砣虽小压千斤 (chèng tuó suī xiǎo yā qiān jīn) is a Chinese word meaning “although small, a steelyard weight may tip a hundred pounds (idiom); apparently insignificant details can have a large impact; for want of a nail the battle was lost”.

Meanings

  1. 1although small, a steelyard weight may tip a hundred pounds (idiom)
  2. 2apparently insignificant details can have a large impact
  3. 3for want of a nail the battle was lost

Characters in 秤砣虽小压千斤

秤chēng · to weigh (variant of 稱|称[cheng1])砣tuó · steelyard weight虽suī · although小xiǎo · small压yā · to press千qiān · thousand斤jīn · catty

Related words

小small小时hour小姐young lady小心to be careful虽然although; even though (often used correlatively with 可是[ke3 shi4] or 但是[dan4 shi4] etc)小子(literary) youngster小子(coll.) boy小孩child压力pressure小伙子young man压to press压used in 壓根兒|压根儿[ya4 gen1 r5]

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