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畫蛇添足

简画蛇添足 · 繁畫蛇添足

Mandarin · pinyin huà shé tiān zú

lit. draw legs on a snake (idiom); fig. to ruin the effect by adding sth superfluous
to overdo it

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Characters in this entry

畫: huà · delineate, painting, picture, drawing; draw
蛇: shé · snake
添: tiān · append, add to; increase
足: zú · foot; attain, satisfy, enough; Kangxi radical 156
画: huà · a painting, picture, drawing; to draw

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–2–1–2 · hua4 she2 tian1 zu2

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

畫蛇添足 · find source passages ↗ · 画蛇添足 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

waak6 se4 tim1 zuk1

Cantonese word readings for 畫蛇添足. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(figurative, derogatory) to improve something unnecessarily; to gild the lily

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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