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关公面前耍大刀

Guān gōng miàn qián shuǎ dà dāodictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. to wield the broadsword in the presence of Lord Guan (idiom) / fig. to make a fool of oneself by showing off in front of an expert
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-d9af81d52b079993. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

關公面前耍大刀 关公面前耍大刀 [Guan1 gong1 mian4 qian2 shua3 da4 dao1] /lit. to wield the broadsword in the presence of Lord Guan (idiom)/fig. to make a fool of oneself by showing off in front of an expert/

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: 關公面前耍大刀

  • 关
    guān

    mountain pass / to close / to shut / to turn off / to confine / to lock (sb) up / to shut (sb in a room, a bird in a cage etc) / to concern / to involve

    Guān

    surname Guan

  • 公
    gōng

    public / collectively owned / common / international (e.g. high seas, metric system, calendar) / make public / fair / just / Duke, highest of five orders of nobility 五等爵位[wǔ děng jué wèi] / honorable (gentlemen) / father-in-law / male (animal)

  • 面
    miàn

    face / side / surface / aspect / top / classifier for objects with flat surfaces such as drums, mirrors, flags etc / flour / noodles / (of food) soft (not crunchy) / (slang) (of a person) ineffectual / spineless

  • 前
    qián

    front / forward / ahead / first / top (followed by a number) / future / ago / before / BC (e.g. 前293年) / former / formerly

  • 耍
    shuǎ

    to play with / to wield / to act (cool etc) / to display (a skill, one's temper etc)

    Shuǎ

    surname Shua

  • 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]

  • 刀
    dāo

    knife / blade / single-edged sword / cutlass (CL:把[bǎ]) / (slang) (loanword) dollar / classifier for sets of one hundred sheets (of paper) / classifier for knife cuts or stabs / (Internet slang) to bargain / to ask for a small discount (esp. on second-hand marketplaces) / (Internet slang) to knife (sb) (often used hyperbolically, as in 想刀他[xiǎng dāo tā] "I could kill him!")

    Dāo

    surname Dao

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.