目空一切

mùkōngyīqiè
idiom #37,512

Meanings

  1. 1 arrogant beyond measure
  2. 2 to look down on everyone and everything
  3. 3 supercilious

Examples

Tā qǔdé le yīdiǎn chéngjì jiù mùkōngyīqiè.
He had a little success and then became completely full of himself.
Zuòrén bù néng mùkōngyīqiè, yào dǒngde zūnzhòng biérén.
You can't go through life looking down on everyone; you have to learn to respect others.

Tips

history
Comes from Li Ruzhen's Qing-dynasty novel 《》(Flowers in the Mirror, ch. 52): '自己学问目空一切' — 'relying on his own learning, he held everyone in contempt'. Always negative.
memory
Literal breakdown: 'eye' + 'empty / nothing' + 一切 'everything' = 'in his eyes, everything is empty / nothing'. Picture someone whose eyes look right through every other person in the room.

Stroke Order

kōng
qiē