千里之堤，溃于蚁穴

Traditional: 千里之堤，潰於蟻穴

qiān lǐ zhī dī , kuì yú yǐ xué

Dictionary entry

(lit.) an ant hole may cause the collapse of a great dike (idiom)

What does 千里之堤，溃于蚁穴 mean?

千里之堤，溃于蚁穴 (qiān lǐ zhī dī , kuì yú yǐ xué) has the following dictionary meaning.

1(lit.) an ant hole may cause the collapse of a great dike (idiom)

2(fig.) huge damage may result from a moment's negligence

Character breakdown

Open each character to see its own meanings and vocabulary links.

千qiānthousand 里lǐvariant of 裡|里[li3]之zhī(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的[de5]) · him 堤dīdike · Taiwan pr. [ti2]溃huìused in 潰膿|溃脓[hui4 nong2] · Taiwan pr. [kui4]于Yúsurname Yu 蚁yǐant 穴xuécave · cavity

Reviewed examples

No reviewed example dialogues yet. This page only shows verified dictionary data until a context lesson is published.

How to pronounce 千里之堤，溃于蚁穴

千里之堤，溃于蚁穴

qiān lǐ zhī dī , kuì yú yǐ xué

Tap to hear Mandarin.

Base dictionary data: CC-CEDICT · CC BY-SA 4.0.