磨刀不误砍柴工 Save Sign in to save words Traditional (Taiwan): 磨刀不誤砍柴工 módāobùwùkǎncháigōng ㄇㄛˊ ㄉㄠ ㄅㄨˋ ㄨˋ ㄎㄢˇ ㄔㄞˊ ㄍㄨㄥ lit. sharpening the axe won't make the wood-splitting take longer (idiom) fig. time invested in preparations is not lost a beard well lathered is half shaved Character by character 磨(mó)rub 刀(dāo)surname Dao 不(bù)no 误(wù)mistake 砍(kǎn)chop 柴(chái)surname Chai 工(gōng)work A Chinese word or character, or English Search Sources CC-CEDICT, CC BY-SA 4.0 pinyinjs, Apache-2.0