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打小算盘

dǎ xiǎo suàn pándictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. to count on a narrow abacus (idiom) / petty and scheming selfishly / concerned with petty interests / selfish and uncaring of the interests of others / bean counter
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-3993e9418cb581c2. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

打小算盤 打小算盘 [da3 xiao3 suan4 pan2] /lit. to count on a narrow abacus (idiom); petty and scheming selfishly/concerned with petty interests/selfish and uncaring of the interests of others/bean counter/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 打小算盤

  • 打
    dá

    (loanword) dozen / Taiwan pr. [dǎ]

    dǎ

    to hit / to strike / to fight / (in many expressions) a semantically light transitive verb used with various objects to form expressions with a wide range of meanings, e.g. 打傘|打伞[dǎ sǎn] "to hold an umbrella", 打電話|打电话[dǎ diàn huà] "to make a phone call", 打針|打针[dǎ zhēn] "to get an injection" / (coll.) from / since

  • 小
    xiǎo

    small / tiny / few / young

  • 算
    suàn

    to calculate / to figure out / to include / to count in / to count / to be valid / to carry weight / to regard as / to consider (to be ...)

  • 盘
    pán

    tray / plate / dish / (finance) (bound form) market prices / (computing) (bound form) disk / to coil (a rope, pigtail etc) / to check / to examine / to investigate / to transfer / to sell (property) / to shift / to move (sth big and heavy) / classifier for things resembling a plate or dish / classifier for coils / classifier for games or matches (chess, table tennis etc)

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.