钻牛角尖 (鑽牛角尖)
zuān niú jiǎo jiān
Pinyin

Definition

钻牛角尖 (鑽牛角尖)
 - 
zuān niú jiǎo jiān
  1. lit. to penetrate into a bull's horn (idiom); fig. to waste time on an insoluble or insignificant problem
  2. to bash one's head against a brick wall
  3. a wild goose chase
  4. a blind alley
  5. to split hairs

Character Decomposition

Related Words (20)

主角
zhǔ jué
  1. 1 leading role
  2. 2 lead
牛
Niú
  1. 1 surname Niu
牛奶
niú nǎi
  1. 1 cow's milk
  2. 2 classifier: 瓶 píng
  3. 3 classifier: 杯 bēi
牛肉
niú ròu
  1. 1 beef
角
Jué
  1. 1 surname Jue

Idioms (20)

九牛一毛
jiǔ niú yī máo
  1. 1 lit. one hair from nine oxen (idiom)
  2. 2 fig. a drop in the ocean
九牛二虎之力
jiǔ niú èr hǔ zhī lì
  1. 1 tremendous strength (idiom)
初生牛犊不怕虎
chū shēng niú dú bù pà hǔ
  1. 1 lit. newborn calves do not fear tigers (idiom)
  2. 2 fig. the young are fearless
初露头角
chū lù tóu jiǎo
  1. 1 lit. to first show one's horns (idiom); fig. a first show of emerging talent
  2. 2 first sign of emerging talent
  3. 3 budding genius
割鸡焉用牛刀
gē jī yān yòng niú dāo
  1. 1 lit. why use a pole-ax to slaughter a chicken? (idiom)
  2. 2 fig. to waste effort on a trifling matter
  3. 3 also written 殺雞焉用牛刀|杀鸡焉用牛刀[shā jī yān yòng niú dāo]

Sample Sentences

我怎么不难过？我当时也像你现在一样。后来发现，自己真的很傻。世界上这么多人，怎么可能只有一个适合你呢？你看，后来我遇见了你妈，又有了你。所以，别老钻牛角尖。
wǒ zěnme bù nánguò ？wǒ dāngshí yě xiàng nǐ xiànzài yīyàng 。hòulái fāxiàn ，zìjǐ zhēnde hěn shǎ 。shìjièshàng zhème duō rén ，zěnme kěnéng zhǐyǒu yī ge shìhé nǐ ne ？nǐ kàn ，hòulái wǒ yùjiàn le nǐ mā ，yòu yǒu le nǐ 。suǒyǐ ，bié lǎo zuān niújiǎojiān 。
How could I not be sad? At the time, I was just as sad as you are now. Later I realized that I was really foolish. There are so many people in the world, how could there possibly be only one person right for you? You see, later on I met your mom, and had you. So, don't make things more difficult than they have to be.
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你别激动。刚才你也说了，有好多同事也失业了，不是只有你一个人，对不对？要豁达一点儿，不要钻牛角尖。
nǐ bié jīdòng 。gāngcái nǐ yě shuō le ，yǒu hǎo duō tóngshì yě shīyè le ，bù shì zhǐyǒu nǐ yī ge rén ，duì bu duì ？yào huòdá yīdiǎnr ，bùyào zuān niújiǎojiān 。
Don't get excited. You just said that a lot of your colleagues also lost their jobs-- it wasn't just you. Isn't that right? You should be more optimistic. Stop worrying about things you can't change.
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