蚁穴 (yǐ xué) — ant nest; small flaw or oversight that can lead to catastrophe (metaphorical)

Definition

Examples

• 花园里有一个很大的蚁穴。
  Huā yuán lǐ yǒu yí gè hěn dà de yǐ xué.
  There is a very big ant nest in the garden.
• 千里之堤，溃于蚁穴，我们不能忽视任何细节。
  Qiān lǐ zhī dī, kuì yú yǐ xué, wǒ men bù néng hū shì rèn hé xì jié.
  A thousand-li dike collapses due to an ant nest — we cannot overlook any detail.
• 这个程序的一个小蚁穴导致了整个系统瘫痪。
  Zhè ge chéng xù de yí gè xiǎo yǐ xué dǎo zhì le zhěng gè xì tǒng tān huàn.
  A small flaw in this program caused the entire system to crash.