聪明反被聪明误 (cōng míng fǎn bèi cōng míng wù) — to be caught by one's own cleverness; cleverness may overreach itself
Definition
A chengyu warning that being too clever backfires — your own cleverness becomes the trap. Used to comment on someone whose scheming or overconfidence caused their downfall.
idiom
to be caught by one's own clevernesscleverness may overreach itself
Examples
- ，聪明反被聪明误，。Tā zǒng jué de zì jǐ hěn cōng ming, jié guǒ cōng míng fǎn bèi cōng míng wù, bǎ shì qing gǎo zá le.He always thinks he's very smart, but in the end his cleverness backfired and he messed things up.
- ，，聪明反被聪明误。Zài kǎo shì zhōng, tā yīn wèi tài zì xìn ér cū xīn, zhēn shì cōng míng fǎn bèi cōng míng wù.During the exam, he was careless because he was too confident — truly a case of cleverness overreaching itself.
- ，聪明反被聪明误。Zuò shēng yi bù néng zhī kào xiǎo cōng ming, fǒu zé róng yì cōng míng fǎn bèi cōng míng wù.In business, you can't rely only on petty tricks, or you'll easily be caught by your own cleverness.
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