King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “skimp”

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

The closest CC-CEDICT match for skimp 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

Other Chinese words for “skimp”

WordPinyinMeaning
一带而过 (一帶而過)yī dài ér guòto skate around; to skip over

Related words

Other words that share a character with 敷衍.

WordPinyinMeaning
入不敷出rù bù fū chūincome does not cover expenditure; unable to make ends meet
敷设 (敷設)fū shèto lay; to spread out
热敷 (熱敷)rè fūto apply a hot compress
外敷wài fūto 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 shēngto give rise to; to derive
繁衍fán yǎnto multiply; to reproduce
衍射yǎn shè(physics) to diffract

See also: Japanese symbol for “skimp”.

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.

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