對牛彈琴
简 对牛弹琴 · 繁 對牛彈琴Meanings
- lit. to play the lute to a cow (idiom)
- fig. offering a treat to an unappreciative audience
- to cast pearls before swine
- caviar to the general
- to preach to deaf ears
- to talk over sb's head
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Mandarin tones
4–2–2–2 · dui4 niu2 tan2 qin2
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
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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.
對牛彈琴 · find source passages ↗ · 对牛弹琴 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
deoi3 ngau4 taan4 kam4
Cantonese word readings for 對牛彈琴. 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.
verb
- to talk about something that one's listener can not understand or turns a deaf ear to; to talk to a brick wall; to preach to deaf ears
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
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