get the cat and lose the cow

get the cat and lose the cow

Chinese idiom, Pinyin is zh ē NGM ā ODI ū Ni ú, meaning to fight for the cat and lose the cow. It's a metaphor for being greedy for small things and losing big ones. It comes from the lamp on the wrong road by Li Lvyuan in Qing Dynasty.

The origin of Idioms

The seventieth chapter of Li Luyuan's Qiludeng in the Qing Dynasty: "it's really about winning the cat and losing the cow."

Analysis of Idioms

In the near sense, the small loses the big and the competing for the chicken loses the sheep

Idiom usage

As predicate, object, attribute