English Dictionary

too clever by half

形容詞

慣用表現 人物 通常

(idiomatic, of a person, plan, theory, etc.) Shrewd but flawed by overthinking or excessive complexity, with a resulting tendency to be unreliable or unsuccessful.

日本語の意味

賢さが行き過ぎて、考えすぎや複雑すぎる戦略のため、かえって信頼性や成功を欠いてしまう状態を指す。 / 頭の回りすぎが原因で、物事が過度に複雑になり、結果として不誠実または失敗しやすい性質を意味する。

The investor dismissed the startup's too clever by half business model as impractical and risky.

投資家はそのスタートアップの、考え込みすぎて複雑になりがちで実行に耐えないため信頼できずリスクが高いビジネスモデルを非現実的だとして切り捨てた。

意味（1）

(idiomatic, of a person, plan, theory, etc.) Shrewd but flawed by overthinking or excessive complexity, with a resulting tendency to be unreliable or unsuccessful.

[H]e had a damnable suppleness and a gift of immediate response, a readiness to oblige, that made him seem to take up causes which he really left lying, enabled him to learn enough about them in an hour to have all the air of having converted them to his use. . . . He was at all events too clever by half, since this pernicious overflow had wrecked most of his attempts.