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小惩大诫

xiǎo chéng dà jièdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. to punish a little to prevent a lot (idiom) / to criticize former mistakes firmly to prevent large scale repetition
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-6e0fa7228cb433a0. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

小懲大誡 小惩大诫 [xiao3 cheng2 da4 jie4] /lit. to punish a little to prevent a lot (idiom); to criticize former mistakes firmly to prevent large scale repetition/

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: 小懲大誡

  • 小
    xiǎo

    small / tiny / few / young

  • 惩
    chéng

    to punish / to reprimand / to warn

  • 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]

  • 诫
    jiè

    commandment / to prohibit

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.