expression, ichidan verb
a small leak will sink a great ship
Proverb meaning that a tiny oversight or minor problem can lead to a major disaster. Used to warn against neglecting small details.
小さなミスを放っておくと、蟻の穴から堤も崩れるというように、大きな失敗につながる。
If you ignore small mistakes, as the saying goes, a small leak will sink a great ship, they can lead to a big failure.
Standard kanji spelling for this proverb.
Kana spelling for 蟻 is common in everyday writing.
A similar proverb with the same meaning, literally 'a thousand-ri embankment also starts from an ant hole'. Both warn that small beginnings can cause great ruin.
A Japanese proverb derived from the Chinese saying '千里之堤，潰於蟻穴' (a thousand-li dike collapses because of an ant hole). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the imagery of an ant hole causing a dike to break is shared across East Asian proverbs.