HKDictionary

玉不琢,不成器 (juk6 bat1 doek3 , bat1 sing4 hei3) — a piece of jade without chiselling will not become a useful vessel; the finest diamond must be cut in Cantonese

jukˍ₆玉batˉ¹不doek˗₃琢,,不batˉ¹成singˎ₄器
Mandarin Pinyin: yu4 bu4 zhuo2 , bu4 cheng2 qi4

Meaning of 玉不琢,不成器

nouna piece of jade without chiselling will not become a useful vessel; the finest diamond must be cut

Characters in 玉不琢,不成器

玉juk6
jade; precious stone; gem
不bat1
not; no; un-
琢doek3
chisel; carve; cut (jade)
成sing4
one tenth; 10 per cent
器hei3
to think highly of (a person)

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