画蛇添足
- Literal
- to draw a snake and add feet to it
- Figurative
- To ruin something by overdoing it; to add a pointless, superfluous touch that spoils what was already fine.
Where does 画蛇添足 come from?
In the state of Chu, a man performing a sacrifice rewarded his retainers with a single jug of wine, not enough for all of them. They agreed it would go to whoever finished drawing a snake on the ground first. The man who finished first, feeling he had the lead, picked up the jug and, to show off, began adding feet to his snake. Meanwhile another man finished his, snatched the jug away, and said: “Snakes have no feet; how can you draw them on?” He drank the wine, and the man who had added feet lost everything.
Source (出处): 《战国策》
How is 画蛇添足 used? Two examples
- 这篇文章已经很完整了，你再加这段反而是画蛇添足。
This article is already very complete; adding this paragraph actually just gilds the lily.
- 解释到这里就够了，多说反而画蛇添足。
Explaining this far is enough; saying more would only spoil it with the superfluous.
In Wanyu, all 400 chengyu have audio on every sentence, and you can save them to your decks and review them with spaced repetition. Free.
