- lit. it takes a long time to make a big pot (idiom); fig. a great talent matures slowly
- in the fullness of time a major figure will develop into a pillar of the state
- Rome wasn't built in a day
Characters
- 大 (大): big; large; great; older (than another person); eldest (as in 大姐[da4 jie3]); greatly; freely; fully; (dialect) father; (dialect) uncle (father's brother)
- 器 (器): device; tool; utensil; CL:臺|台[tai2]
- 晚 (晚): evening; night; late
- 成 (成): surname Cheng
Resources
- Wiktionary: 大器晚成
- MDBG: 大器晚成
- Examples with 大器晚成 on Tatoeba
Examples
他大器晚成。