照猫画虎 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. drawing a tiger using a cat as a model ; fig. to follow a model and get things more or less right but without capturing the spirit of the subject
• uninspired imitation

Character by character

• 照zhàoto shine, to reflect, to illuminate
• 猫māocat
• 画huàpicture, painting, drawing; to draw
• 虎hǔtiger; brave, fierce; surname

Idioms sharing a character

• 福星高照 fú xīng gāo zhào
• 肝胆相照 gān dǎn xiāng zhào
• 阳光普照 yáng guāng pǔ zhào
• 猫哭老鼠 māo kū lǎo shǔ
• 猫哭耗子 māo kū hào zi
• 阿猫阿狗 ā māo ā gǒu
• 指手画脚 zhǐ shǒu huà jiǎo
• 琴棋书画 qín qí shū huà
• 画地为牢 huà dì wéi láo
• 画地自限 huà dì zì xiàn

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