expression:

• trying to straighten the horns of a bull, and killing it in the process; trying to correct a small defect and ruining the whole thing; The cure is worse than the disease - four character idiom

noun:

• wide-mouthed ceramic vessel having a small hole in its spherical base (into which bamboo was probably inserted to pour liquids)
• teapot-like object made typically of lacquerware and used to pour hot and cold liquids ➜ 半挿【はんぞう】

expression:

• How can a small bird (a sparrow, a petty person) understand the aspirations of a great bird (a phoenix); Only a hero can understand a hero - four character idiom

noun:

• ruby - esp. ルビー
• ruby character; small hiragana or katakana readings of kanji usually above or to the side of the kanji (esp. used by printers and in ref. to printed material) - esp. ルビ
• Ruby (programming language) ［ルビー］ - IT term

numeric:

• one-tenth; one percent (one-tenth of a wari); 3 mm (one-tenth of a sun); 2.4 mm (one-tenth of a mon, a traditional unit used to measure shoe sizes); 0.1 degree (one-tenth of a do, used to measure body temperature on any temperature scale)

noun:

• one-quarter of a ryou (obsolete unit of currency)
• thickness
• advantageous circumstances
• one-tenth of a monme of silver ➜ 匁【もんめ】

noun:

• quadruple time; four-four time; common time - Music term
• the four instruments in the accompanying orchestra in noh, etc. (flute, floor drum, small hand drum, large hand drum) - Music term ➜ 囃子【はやし】・笛【ふえ】・大鼓【おおつづみ】・小鼓【こつづみ】・太鼓【たいこ】

adjective:

• light (i.e. not heavy); feeling light (i.e. offering little resistance, moving easily) Antonym: 重い
• light (i.e. of foot); effortless; nimble; agile
• non-serious; minor; unimportant; trivial
• slight; small; gentle; soft; easy; lighthearted (e.g. joke)
• easy; simple
• indiscriminate ➜ 口が軽い

godan ~る verb / transitive:

• to serve (in a bowl, on a plate, etc.); to dish out; to dish up; to fill (a bowl) with
• to pile up; to heap up; to fill up; to stack up
• to administer (medicine, poison); to dose out; to prescribe
• to put into (e.g. information in a report, meaning in a statement)
• to mark out (e.g. scale); to graduate (e.g. thermometer)
• to exaggerate; to apply heavy makeup - slang

noun:

• sake sold in a cup rather than a bottle; drinking sake from a regular-size cup rather than from a small sake cup

noun:

• cart (esp. a food cart); stall; stand ➜ 屋台店
• festival float; portable shrine dedicated to a god and shaped like a house; dancing platform ➜ 踊り屋台
• stage prop fashioned after a large building
• framework (of a house, etc.) - abbreviation ➜ 屋台骨
• house (esp. a small and miserable house) - archaism

noun:

• robe worn by military officials with a round collar, unstitched open sides, and no wrapped fabric along the bottom ➜ 闕腋の袍
• small opening in the side of traditional Japanese clothing (where the sleeve meets the bodice, below the armpit); clothing with such an opening (usu. worn by women or children) ➜ 八つ口

ichidan verb / intransitive verb:

• to collapse; to crumble
• to get out of shape; to lose one's shape; to become disorganized; to become untidy
• to break down; to be thrown into disarray
• to crash (stock market); to slump; to decline
• to break money into small change
• to turn bad (e.g. weather); to change for the worse; to deteriorate

noun:

• star; any light-emitting (or reflecting) heavenly body (except for the sun and the moon)
• offender; perpetrator - police slang - slang
• star point (in go); hoshi; intersection marked with a dot
• circular symbol (said to be shaped like a shining star)
• bullseye
• one's star (out of the nine stars); the star that determines one's fate ➜ 九星
• small dot; spot
• point; score - Sumo term

~と adverb / adverb / ~する noun:

• lightly rolling (of a small and round thing) - onomatopoeia
• pleasant, high-pitched sound (e.g. bell, young woman's laughter) - onomatopoeia
• changing frequently (e.g. conversation, plans); (occurring) in rapid succession (e.g. sumo wrestlers being defeated); fickly; in a fickle manner - onomatopoeia
• roly-poly - onomatopoeia

~と adverb / adverb:

• chirp chirp; sound of insects - onomatopoeia
• ribbit ribbit; croak croak; sound of frogs - onomatopoeia ➜ ケロケロ

noun:

• roller; lint roller; paint roller ［ころころ・コロコロ］ - onomatopoeia

expression:

• better to be the beak of a rooster than the rump of a bull; better to be the leader of a small group than a subordinate in a large organization; better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond - four character idiom