lit. draw legs on a snake (idiom); fig. to ruin the effect by adding sth superfluous; to overdo it
trad. 畫蛇添足
Also written 畫蛇添足【huà shé tiān zú】
Characters in this word
4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
蛇
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
variant of 蛇[she2]
- Pinyin
- shé
- Traditional
- 虵
- Strokes
- 11
- Frequency
- 3006 of 2500
添
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to add; to increase; to replenish
- Pinyin
- tiān
- Strokes
- 11
- Frequency
- 11922 of 2500
足
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
excessive
- Pinyin
- jù
- Strokes
- 7
- Frequency
- 12771 of 2500