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雷大雨小

léi dà yǔ xiǎodictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. much thunder but little rain / fig. a lot of talk but little action / his bark is worse than his bite
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-c65f54aa117943b5. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

雷大雨小 雷大雨小 [lei2 da4 yu3 xiao3] /lit. much thunder but little rain; fig. a lot of talk but little action/his bark is worse than his bite/

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.

  • 雷
    léi

    thunder / (bound form) (military) mine, as in 地雷[dì léi] land mine / (coll.) to shock / to stun / to astound / (Tw) (coll.) spoiler / (Tw) (coll.) to reveal plot details to (sb)

    Léi

    surname Lei

  • 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]

  • 雨
    yù

    (literary) to rain / (of rain, snow etc) to fall / to precipitate / to wet

  • 小
    xiǎo

    small / tiny / few / young

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.