殺雞焉用牛刀
简 杀鸡焉用牛刀 · 繁 殺雞焉用牛刀Meanings
- (lit.) why use an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken?; (fig.) there's no need to use great ability or resources for a trivial task
Characters in this entry
- 殺
- Look up this written character
- 雞
- jī · chickens; domestic fowl
- 焉
- yān · thereupon, then; how? why? where?
- 用
- yòng · use, employ, apply, operate; use
- 牛
- niú · cow, ox, bull; Kangxi radical 93; 9th lunar mansion, determinative star β Capricorni (Dabih)
- 刀
- dāo · knife; old coin; measure
- 杀
- shā · kill, slaughter, murder; hurt
- 鸡
- jī · chicken
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Mandarin tones
1–1–1–4–2–1 · sha1 ji1 yan1 yong4 niu2 dao1
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
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.
殺雞焉用牛刀 · find source passages ↗ · 杀鸡焉用牛刀 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
saat3 gai1 jin1 jung6 ngau4 dou1
Cantonese word readings for 殺雞焉用牛刀. 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.
proverb
- (rhetorical question) synonym of 割雞焉用牛刀 /割鸡焉用牛刀 (gējī yān yòng niúdaō, “something of a big calibre is not necessary to handle small or minor problems; why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut”)
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack