水淺養不住大魚

简 水浅养不住大鱼 · 繁 水淺養不住大魚
Mandarin · pinyin shuǐ qiǎn yǎng bù zhù dà yú

Meanings

  1. lit. shallow waters cannot harbor big fish (idiom)
  2. fig. ambitious, talented people cannot reach their full potential in a small organization
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Characters in this entry

水
shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
淺
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養
yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
住
zhù · reside, live at, dwell, lodge; stop
大
dà · big, great, vast, large, high
魚
yú · fish; surname; Kangxi radical 195
浅
qiǎn · shallow, not deep; superficial
养
yǎng · raise, rear, bring up; support
鱼
yú · fish; surname; Kangxi radical 195
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–3–3–4–4–4–2 · shui3 qian3 yang3 bu4 zhu4 da4 yu2

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水淺養不住大魚 · shui3 qian3 yang3 bu4 zhu4 da4 yu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 62,408
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record水淺養不住大魚 水浅养不住大鱼 [shui3 qian3 yang3 bu4 zhu4 da4 yu2] /lit. shallow waters cannot harbor big fish (idiom)/fig. ambitious, talented people cannot reach their full potential in a small organization/