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画蛇添足

huà shé tiān zú · literally “draw a snake, add feet”

Meaning

To ruin something good by adding unnecessary extras.

In a sentence

The design was fine until they 画蛇添足 and added three more fonts.

Usage note

Criticises over-engineering, not carelessness.

Where you see it in Brain Challenge

This idiom appears in the picture-idiom levels as a picture or number clue. When the clue shows numbers, the digits usually become the first characters of each half of the idiom — that is why so many chengyu start with 一, 三, 五, 七, 九 or 十.

Play a picture-idiom level → · All idioms