lit. one pellet of rat feces spoiled the whole pot of congee (idiom); fig. one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch
trad. 一粒老鼠屎壞了一鍋粥
Also written 一粒老鼠屎壞了一鍋粥【yī lì lǎo shǔ shǐ huài le yī guō zhōu】
Characters in this word
9一
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
one, single, a (article), as soon as, entire; whole; all; throughout, "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1), also pr. [yao1] for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit
- Pinyin
- yī
- Strokes
- 1
- Frequency
- 158 of 2500
粒
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
grain; granule; pellet; particle, classifier for small round objects (peas, bullets, peanuts, pills, grains etc), (Tw) classifier for larger round objects (watermelon etc)
- Pinyin
- lì
- Strokes
- 11
- Frequency
- 29383 of 2500
老
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity, old (of people), venerable (person), experienced, of long standing, always, all the time, of the past, very, outdated, (of meat etc) tough
- Pinyin
- lǎo
- Strokes
- 6
- Frequency
- 511 of 2500
鼠
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
(bound form) rat; mouse
- Pinyin
- shǔ
- Strokes
- 13
- Frequency
- 13224 of 2500
屎
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
feces; excrement; a stool, (bound form) secretion (of the ear, eye etc)
- Pinyin
- shǐ
- Strokes
- 9
- Frequency
- 3088 of 2500
坏
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
bad, spoiled, broken, to break down, (suffix) to the utmost
- Pinyin
- huài
- Traditional
- 壞
- Strokes
- 7
- Frequency
- 1076 of 2500
了
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
(completed action marker), (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now), (modal particle intensifying preceding clause)
- Pinyin
- le
- Strokes
- 2
- Frequency
- 4 of 2500
锅
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
pot; pan; wok; cauldron, pot-shaped thing, CL:口[kou3],隻|只[zhi1]
- Pinyin
- guō
- Traditional
- 鍋
- Strokes
- 12
- Frequency
- 13998 of 2500
粥
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
used in 葷粥|荤粥[Xun1 yu4]
- Pinyin
- yù
- Strokes
- 12
- Frequency
- 13087 of 2500