一寸阴

一寸陰

yīcùnyīn

idiom

Meanings

Yí cùn guāngyīn yí cùn jīn, cùn jīn nán mǎi cùn guāngyīn.

An inch of time is an inch of gold, but an inch of gold can't buy an inch of time.

Kǎoshì qián de měi yí cùn yīn dōu xiǎnde géwài zhēnguì.

Every sliver of time before the exam felt especially precious.

culture

阴 here means the moving shadow on a sundial. The classical 一寸光阴一寸金 uses the same image — time measured by a finger's-width of shadow.

一 yī

寸 cùn

阴 yīn