cái
xiǎo
yòng

idiom
common

Meaning of 大材小用

大材小用 means to misuse or underutilize talent; to put an excellent person in an insignificant position. Pronounced dà cái xiǎo yòng.

  • to misuse or underutilize talent; to put an excellent person in an insignificant position

Definitions & Examples

Ràng
shì
zuò
wén
yuán
 
jiǎn
zhí
jiù
shì
cái
xiǎo
yòng
 

Having a PhD do clerical work is a complete waste of talent.

Lǐng
dǎo
jué
de
pài
guǎn
xiǎo
xiàng
shì
cái
xiǎo
yòng
le
 

The leader felt sending him to manage that small project was underutilizing his abilities.

Gōng
dān
xīn
cái
xiǎo
yòng
 
suǒ
gěi
ān
pái
le
gèng
zhòng
yào
de
zhí
wèi
 

The company was worried about wasting his talent, so they assigned him a more important position.

Zhè
wèi
gōng
chéng
shī
lái
zuò
jiǎn
dān
de
shù
 
zhēn
shì
cái
xiǎo
yòng
a
 

Having this engineer do simple data entry is really a misuse of his skills.