break off both ends

break off both ends

As a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is Qi ā t ó UQ ù w ě I, which means to remove the front and back parts, and also means to remove the useless parts. From New Year's greetings.

The origin of Idioms

Jiang Zilong's "New Year's greetings": "one month to catch up with the two festivals, pinching the head and tail, one month even half a month's work can not be done!"

Idiom usage

As a predicate or object; used of the useful part of something. example his memory is made up of blood, sweat and pain. He can't talk about it casually, and he doesn't want to end it. Lao She's Camel Xiangzi 22 when he quoted that article, he pinched the head and removed the tail and took the meaning out of context, which had a bad influence.