by twos and threes

by twos and threes

The Chinese idiom, Pinyin is s ā ns ā NLI ǎ ngli ǎ ng, which means three or two together to describe a small number of people. From Yuefu Poetry Collection.

The origin of Idioms

Volume 47 of Yuefu Poetry Anthology by Guo Maoqian of Song Dynasty quoted the poem "beautiful girl" from Jin Dynasty: "fish can't travel alone, they are all in twos and threes." The Ci of niannujiao Shuanglu written by Xin Qiji of Song Dynasty: "just stand by and say nothing at the beginning, it's just two by two and three by three."

Idiom usage

There are many people wearing woollen hats in the street around shiwenlin street. (Chronicle of Wen Yiduo's complete works)