得寸进尺

Traditional: 得寸進尺

dé cùn jìn chǐ

Dictionary entry

lit. win an inch, want a foot (idiom); fig. not satisfied with small gains

What does 得寸进尺 mean?

得寸进尺 (dé cùn jìn chǐ) has the following dictionary meaning.

1lit. win an inch, want a foot (idiom); fig. not satisfied with small gains

2give him an inch, and he'll want a mile

Character breakdown

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得déto obtain · to get 寸cùna unit of length · inch 进jìnto go forward · to advance 尺chěone of the characters used to represent a musical note in gongche notation, 工尺譜|工尺谱[gong1 che3 pu3]

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How to pronounce 得寸进尺

得寸进尺

dé cùn jìn chǐ

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