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小洞不补大洞吃苦

xiǎo dòng bù bǔ dà dòng chī kǔdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
A small hole not plugged will make you suffer a big hole (idiom) / a stitch in time saves nine
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-a8ecc728d6b99501. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

小洞不補大洞吃苦 小洞不补大洞吃苦 [xiao3 dong4 bu4 bu3 da4 dong4 chi1 ku3] /A small hole not plugged will make you suffer a big hole (idiom); a stitch in time saves nine/

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: 小洞不補大洞吃苦

  • 小
    xiǎo

    small / tiny / few / young

  • 洞
    dòng

    cave / hole / zero (unambiguous spoken form when spelling out numbers) / CL:個|个[gè]

    tóng

    used in 洪洞[Hóng tóng] (the name of a place in Shanxi)

  • 不
    bù

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

  • 补
    bǔ

    to repair / to patch / to mend / to make up for / to fill (a vacancy) / to supplement

  • 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]

  • 洞
    dòng

    cave / hole / zero (unambiguous spoken form when spelling out numbers) / CL:個|个[gè]

    tóng

    used in 洪洞[Hóng tóng] (the name of a place in Shanxi)

  • 吃
    chī

    to eat / to consume / to eat at (a cafeteria etc) / to eradicate / to destroy / to absorb / to suffer (shock, injury, defeat etc)

  • 苦
    kǔ

    bitter / hardship / pain / to suffer / to bring suffering to / painstakingly

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.