Chinese symbol for “botch”

敷衍

fū yǎn

to elaborate (on a theme); to expound (the classics); perfunctory; to skimp

The closest CC-CEDICT match for botch is 敷衍 (fū yǎn), defined as: to elaborate (on a theme); to expound (the classics); perfunctory; to skimp; to botch; to do sth half-heartedly or just for show.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

敷 fū

to apply, to paint, to spread

radical 66 ⽁ · 15 strokes

衍 yǎn

to overflow; to spread out

radical 144 ⾏ · 9 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 敷衍.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
入不敷出	rù bù fū chū	income does not cover expenditure; unable to make ends meet
敷设 (敷設)	fū shè	to lay; to spread out
热敷 (熱敷)	rè fū	to apply a hot compress
外敷	wài fū	to apply externally
敷衍了事	fū yǎn liǎo shì	(idiom) to do things half-heartedly; to merely go through the motions
衍生	yǎn shēng	to give rise to; to derive
繁衍	fán yǎn	to multiply; to reproduce
衍射	yǎn shè	(physics) to diffract

See also: Japanese symbol for “botch”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.