细 水 长 流

xì shuǐ cháng liúdictionary entry

lit. thin streams flow forever / fig. economy will get you a long way / to work steadily at something little by little

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-765b6d51c3f0a333. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

細水長流 细水长流 [xi4 shui3 chang2 liu2] /lit. thin streams flow forever/fig. economy will get you a long way/to work steadily at something little by little/

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: 細水長流

细
xì
thin or slender / finely particulate / thin and soft / fine / delicate / trifling / (of a sound) quiet / frugal
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
长
cháng
long / (bound form) length / (bound form) strong point / forte / (bound form) to be good at / (literary) surplus / spare (Taiwan pr. [zhàng])
zhǎng
chief / head / elder / to grow / to develop / to increase / to enhance
流
liú
to flow / to disseminate / to circulate or spread / to move or drift / to degenerate / to banish or send into exile / stream of water or sth resembling one / class, rate or grade

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.