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大材小用

Mandarin · pinyin dà cái xiǎo yòng

(idiom) to use a talented person in a role far beneath their ability; a waste of talent

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Characters in this entry

大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
材: cái · material, stuff; timber; talent
小: xiǎo · small, tiny, insignificant
用: yòng · use, employ, apply, operate; use

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–2–3–4 · da4 cai2 xiao3 yong4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

daai6 coi4 siu2 jung6

Cantonese word readings for 大材小用. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to use a talented person in an insignificant position; to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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