to try to draw a tiger but end up with a likeness of a dog (idiom); to try to do sth overambitious and end up botching it
trad. 畫虎不成反類犬
Also written 畫虎不成反類犬【huà hǔ bù chéng fǎn lèi quǎn】
Characters in this word
7画
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to draw; to paint, picture; painting (CL:幅[fu2],張|张[zhang1]), to draw (a line) (variant of 劃|划[hua4]), stroke of a Chinese character (variant of 劃|划[hua4]), (calligraphy) horizontal stroke (variant of 劃|划[hua4])
- Pinyin
- huà
- Traditional
- 畫
- Strokes
- 8
- Frequency
- 1144 of 2500
虎
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
tiger, CL:隻|只[zhi1]
- Pinyin
- hǔ
- Strokes
- 8
- Frequency
- 10628 of 2500
不
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
no; not so, (bound form) not; un-
- Pinyin
- bù
- Strokes
- 4
- Frequency
- 9 of 2500
成
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
surname Cheng, short name for Chengdu 成都[Cheng2 du1]
- Pinyin
- Chéng
- Strokes
- 6
- Frequency
- 677 of 2500
反
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
contrary, in reverse, inside out or upside down, to reverse, to return, to oppose, opposite, against, anti-, to rebel, to use analogy, instead, abbr. for 反切[fan3 qie4] phonetic system
- Pinyin
- fǎn
- Strokes
- 4
- Frequency
- 2794 of 2500
类
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
kind; type; class; category, (classifier) kind; type, (bound form) to resemble; to be similar to
- Pinyin
- lèi
- Traditional
- 類
- Strokes
- 9
- Frequency
- 6116 of 2500
犬
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
(literary) dog, Kangxi radical 94
- Pinyin
- quǎn
- Strokes
- 4
- Frequency
- 10813 of 2500