Definition
蚁穴 literally means 'ant nest', but in Chinese it's often used figuratively to mean a tiny flaw or leak that can snowball into a disaster — the core image of the idiom 千里之堤，溃于蚁穴 ('A long dike collapses because of an ant nest'). You can use it concretely (actual ant nests) or metaphorically (small oversights, hidden dangers).
n.
ant nestsmall flaw or oversight that can lead to catastrophe (metaphorical)
Examples
- 蚁穴。Huāyuán lǐ yǒu yí gè hěn dà de yǐ xué.There is a very big ant nest in the garden.
- ，蚁穴，。Qiān lǐ zhī dī, kuì yú yǐ xué, wǒmen bù néng hūshì rènhé xìjié.A thousand-li dike collapses due to an ant nest — we cannot overlook any detail.
- 蚁穴。Zhège chéngxù de yí gè xiǎo yǐ xué dǎozhì le zhěnggè xìtǒng tānhuàn.A small flaw in this program caused the entire system to crash.
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