刻鵠成鶩
kè​hú​chéng​wù

successful imitation

  • created sense approved 刻鹄成鹜/刻鵠成鶩 · kè​hú​chéng​wù · successful imitation — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    刻鹄成鹜 / 刻鵠成鶩

    kè​hú​chéng​wù

    successful imitation

    (idiom) to carve a swan and end up with a duck; to aim high and achieve a respectable result even if it falls short of the original ideal

    刻 (literal) → 刻 · kè · to carve 鹄 (bound) → 鹄/鵠 · hú · swan 成 (literal) → 成 · chéng · to become 鹜 (bound) → 鹜/鶩 · wù · duck

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense