Definition
断章取义 (duàn zhāng-qǔ yì) literally means 'to break off a chapter and take the meaning' — it describes the act of quoting someone's words out of their original context to distort their intended meaning. It is a negative term, often used to criticize selective or misleading citation in arguments or writing.
idiom
to quote out of contextto cite selectively and distort the original meaning
Examples
- 断章取义，。Tā zǒng xǐhuan duàn zhāng-qǔ yì, ràng rén wùhuì tā de huà.He always likes to quote out of context, causing people to misunderstand his words.
- 断章取义，。Xiě lùnwén shí bú yào duàn zhāng-qǔ yì, yào quánmiàn yǐnyòng.When writing a paper, don't quote out of context; cite comprehensively.
- 断章取义。Zhè zhǒng duàn zhāng-qǔ yì de zuòfǎ fēicháng bù zhuānyè.This kind of out-of-context quoting is very unprofessional.
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