自作聪明 (zì zuò cōng ming) — to think oneself clever but end up looking foolish; to outsmart oneself
Definition
A negative judgment: someone thinks they're being clever but the 'cleverness' backfires and makes them look foolish. Often warns against overconfidence or second-guessing experts.
idiom
to think oneself clever but end up looking foolishto outsmart oneself
Examples
- ，自作聪明。Tā zǒng shì yí yì gū xíng, zuì hòu zì zuò cōng ming fǎn ér chī le dà kuī.He always goes his own way, and in the end his trying to be clever backfired and he suffered a big loss.
- 自作聪明，，。Bié zì zuò cōng ming le, zhè jiàn shì nǐ gēn běn bù dǒng, hái shì tīng zhuān jiā de ba.Don't try to be smart about this—you don't understand it at all; you'd better listen to the experts.
- ，自作聪明，。Yí yù dào kùn nan jiù xiǎng zǒu jié jìng, wǎng wǎng zì zuò cōng ming, fǎn ér gèng má fan.Whenever you encounter a difficulty, you think of taking shortcuts—that often leads to outsmarting yourself and only makes things more troublesome.
Appears in
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