画饼充饥 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. to allay one's hunger using a picture of a cake
• to feed on illusions

Character by character

• 画huàpicture, painting, drawing; to draw
• 饼bǐngrice-cake, pastry, biscuit
• 充chōngto fill, to supply; to be full
• 饥jīhungry, starving; hunger, famine

Idioms sharing a character

• 指手画脚 zhǐ shǒu huà jiǎo
• 照猫画虎 zhào māo huà hǔ
• 琴棋书画 qín qí shū huà
• 画地为牢 huà dì wéi láo
• 画地自限 huà dì zì xiàn
• 画荻教子 huà dí jiào zǐ
• 画虎类犬 huà hǔ lèi quǎn
• 画蛇添足 huà shé tiān zú
• 画龙点睛 huà lóng diǎn jīng
• 充耳不闻 chōng ěr bù wén

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.