虚张声势 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to bluff; to bluster; to make an empty show of strength

Character by character

• 虚xūfalse; worthless, hollow, empty; vain
• 张zhāngto display; to expand, to open; to stretch; a shee
• 声shēngsound, noise; voice, tone, music
• 势shìpower, force; tendency, attitude

Idioms sharing a character

• 不虚此行 bù xū cǐ xíng
• 乘虚而入 chéng xū ér rù
• 以虚带实 yǐ xū dài shí
• 做贼心虚 zuò zéi xīn xū
• 名不虚传 míng bù xū chuán
• 向壁虚构 xiàng bì xū gòu
• 向壁虚造 xiàng bì xū zào
• 子虚乌有 zǐ xū wū yǒu
• 弄虚作假 nòng xū zuò jiǎ
• 形同虚设 xíng tóng xū shè

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