A snake wants to swallow an elephant

A snake wants to swallow an elephant

Snake wants to swallow elephant, Chinese idiom, Pinyin is sh é y ù t ū nxi à ng, meaning snake wants to swallow elephant. It's a metaphor for greed. From Shanhaijing haineinanjing.

The origin of Idioms

"Shanhaijing · haineinanjing" says: "Ba snake eats elephant, and its bone comes out at the age of three."

Idiom usage

As an object or attribute; used in figurative sentences. Qu Yuan's Tian Wen in the Warring States Period: "a snake swallows an elephant, how can it be so big?" The fourth volume of Cheng dengji's "the forest of learning from children" in Ming Dynasty: "if beauty is not called evil, it is called Dogtail; if greed is not enough, it is called snake's desire to swallow an elephant."