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水浅养不住大鱼

shuǐ qiǎn yǎng bù zhù dà yúdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. shallow waters cannot harbor big fish (idiom) / fig. ambitious, talented people cannot reach their full potential in a small organization
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-636dd8d2a954cfa1. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

水淺養不住大魚 水浅养不住大鱼 [shui3 qian3 yang3 bu4 zhu4 da4 yu2] /lit. shallow waters cannot harbor big fish (idiom)/fig. ambitious, talented people cannot reach their full potential in a small organization/

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: 水淺養不住大魚

  • 水
    shuǐ

    water / (after a name) ... River / to swim (used mostly in 會水|会水[huì shuǐ] and 水性[shuǐ xìng]) / (coll.) lacking in substance / shoddy / (bound form) additional cost / extra income / classifier for washings of a garment

    Shuǐ

    surname Shui / Shui ethnic group

  • 浅
    jiān

    sound of moving water

    qiǎn

    shallow / light (color)

  • 养
    yǎng

    to raise (animals) / to bring up (children) / to keep (pets) / to support / to give birth

  • 不
    bù

    no / not so / (bound form) not / un-

  • 住
    zhù

    to live / to reside / to stay / to stop / to cease / (result complement indicating firmness or a stable achieved state)

  • 大
    dà

    big / large / great / older (than another person) / eldest (as in 大姐[dà jiě]) / greatly / freely / fully / (dialect) father / (dialect) uncle (father's brother)

    dài

    see 大夫[dài fu]

  • 鱼
    yú

    fish (CL:條|条[tiáo],尾[wěi]) / used in the names of various aquatic animals that are not fish (including abalone 鮑魚|鲍鱼[bào yú], alligators and crocodiles 鱷魚|鳄鱼[è yú] and octopi 章魚|章鱼[zhāng yú])

    Yú

    surname Yu

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.