See paper tiger on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "zh",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "Calque from Chinese",
"name": "calque"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "紙老虎"
},
"expansion": "紙老虎／纸老虎 (zhǐlǎohǔ)",
"name": "zh-l"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Calque from Chinese 紙老虎／纸老虎 (zhǐlǎohǔ), a phrase made famous by Mao Zedong, but with ancient origins. An English translation first appeared in a 1828 book by British missionary and lexicographer Robert Morrison.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "paper tigers",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "paper tiger (plural paper tigers)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"antonyms": [
{
"word": "wolf in sheep's clothing"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Hebrew terms with redundant script codes",
"parents": [
"Terms with redundant script codes",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Khmer terms with redundant script codes",
"parents": [
"Terms with redundant script codes",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
"parents": [
"Terms with redundant transliterations",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Danish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Esperanto translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with French translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Galician translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with German translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Greek translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Hebrew translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Hokkien translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Indonesian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Irish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Italian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Japanese translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Khmer translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Korean translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Malay translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Polish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Russian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Swedish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Tagalog translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Thai translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Turkish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Ukrainian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2008 August 23, Ian Kershaw, “The twisted road to war”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "The League of Nations was by this time scarcely even a paper tiger, devoid of credibility since its divisions and pusillanimity had been so clearly laid bare following Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia in the autumn of 1935.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010 October 11, Roger Cohen, “Iran, the Paper Tiger”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Iran is a paper tiger, a postmodern threat: It has many uses but a third Western war against a Muslim country is a bridge too far.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A seemingly fierce or powerful person, country or organisation without the ability to back up their words; apparently powerful but actually ineffective."
],
"id": "en-paper_tiger-en-noun-BPeM7qxw",
"links": [
[
"fierce",
"fierce"
],
[
"person",
"person"
],
[
"without",
"without"
],
[
"ability",
"ability"
],
[
"ineffective",
"ineffective"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A seemingly fierce or powerful person, country or organisation without the ability to back up their words; apparently powerful but actually ineffective."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "all bark and no bite"
},
{
"word": "one's bark is worse than one's bite"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "sheep in wolf's clothing"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "nan-hbl",
"lang": "Chinese",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"Hokkien"
],
"word": "好哄頭"
},
{
"code": "nan-hbl",
"lang": "Chinese",
"roman": "hó-háⁿ-thâu",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"Hokkien"
],
"word": "好哄头"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "紙老虎"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "zhǐlǎohǔ",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "纸老虎"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "papirtiger"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papieren tijger"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "papera tigro"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "paperitiikeri"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tigre de papier"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "colosse aux pieds d’argile"
},
{
"code": "gl",
"lang": "Galician",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tigre de papel"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Papiertiger"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "chártini tígri",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "χάρτινη τίγρη"
},
{
"code": "he",
"lang": "Hebrew",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "רוח וצלצולים"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "harimau kertas"
},
{
"code": "ga",
"lang": "Irish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tíogar páipéir"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "tigre di carta"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "scatola vuota"
},
{
"alt": "はりこのとら",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "hariko no tora",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "張り子の虎"
},
{
"code": "km",
"lang": "Khmer",
"roman": "klaa krɑdaah",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "ខ្លាក្រដាស"
},
{
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "jong'ihorang'i",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "종이호랑이"
},
{
"code": "ms",
"lang": "Malay",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "harimau kertas"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papirtiger"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papierowy tygrys"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tigre de papel"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bumážnyj tigr",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "бума́жный тигр"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tigre de papel"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "papperstiger"
},
{
"code": "tl",
"lang": "Tagalog",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "tigreng papel"
},
{
"code": "th",
"lang": "Thai",
"roman": "sʉ̌ʉa-grà-dàat",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "เสือกระดาษ"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "kağıttan kaplan"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "paperóvyj tyhr",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "паперо́вий тигр"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Mao Zedong"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-paper tiger.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/dd/En-au-paper_tiger.ogg/En-au-paper_tiger.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/En-au-paper_tiger.ogg"
}
],
"word": "paper tiger"
}
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "zh",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "Calque from Chinese",
"name": "calque"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "紙老虎"
},
"expansion": "紙老虎／纸老虎 (zhǐlǎohǔ)",
"name": "zh-l"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Calque from Chinese 紙老虎／纸老虎 (zhǐlǎohǔ), a phrase made famous by Mao Zedong, but with ancient origins. An English translation first appeared in a 1828 book by British missionary and lexicographer Robert Morrison.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "paper tigers",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "paper tiger (plural paper tigers)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "all bark and no bite"
},
{
"word": "one's bark is worse than one's bite"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"antonyms": [
{
"word": "wolf in sheep's clothing"
}
],
"categories": [
"English calques",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms calqued from Chinese",
"English terms derived from Chinese",
"English terms with quotations",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Hebrew terms with redundant script codes",
"Khmer terms with redundant script codes",
"Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Danish translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with Esperanto translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with Galician translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Greek translations",
"Terms with Hebrew translations",
"Terms with Hokkien translations",
"Terms with Indonesian translations",
"Terms with Irish translations",
"Terms with Italian translations",
"Terms with Japanese translations",
"Terms with Khmer translations",
"Terms with Korean translations",
"Terms with Malay translations",
"Terms with Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"Terms with Swedish translations",
"Terms with Tagalog translations",
"Terms with Thai translations",
"Terms with Turkish translations",
"Terms with Ukrainian translations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2008 August 23, Ian Kershaw, “The twisted road to war”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "The League of Nations was by this time scarcely even a paper tiger, devoid of credibility since its divisions and pusillanimity had been so clearly laid bare following Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia in the autumn of 1935.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010 October 11, Roger Cohen, “Iran, the Paper Tiger”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Iran is a paper tiger, a postmodern threat: It has many uses but a third Western war against a Muslim country is a bridge too far.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A seemingly fierce or powerful person, country or organisation without the ability to back up their words; apparently powerful but actually ineffective."
],
"links": [
[
"fierce",
"fierce"
],
[
"person",
"person"
],
[
"without",
"without"
],
[
"ability",
"ability"
],
[
"ineffective",
"ineffective"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A seemingly fierce or powerful person, country or organisation without the ability to back up their words; apparently powerful but actually ineffective."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "sheep in wolf's clothing"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"wikipedia": [
"Mao Zedong"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-paper tiger.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/dd/En-au-paper_tiger.ogg/En-au-paper_tiger.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/En-au-paper_tiger.ogg"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "nan-hbl",
"lang": "Chinese",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"Hokkien"
],
"word": "好哄頭"
},
{
"code": "nan-hbl",
"lang": "Chinese",
"roman": "hó-háⁿ-thâu",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"Hokkien"
],
"word": "好哄头"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "紙老虎"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "zhǐlǎohǔ",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "纸老虎"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "papirtiger"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papieren tijger"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "papera tigro"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "paperitiikeri"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tigre de papier"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "colosse aux pieds d’argile"
},
{
"code": "gl",
"lang": "Galician",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tigre de papel"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Papiertiger"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "chártini tígri",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "χάρτινη τίγρη"
},
{
"code": "he",
"lang": "Hebrew",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "רוח וצלצולים"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "harimau kertas"
},
{
"code": "ga",
"lang": "Irish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tíogar páipéir"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "tigre di carta"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "scatola vuota"
},
{
"alt": "はりこのとら",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "hariko no tora",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "張り子の虎"
},
{
"code": "km",
"lang": "Khmer",
"roman": "klaa krɑdaah",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "ខ្លាក្រដាស"
},
{
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "jong'ihorang'i",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "종이호랑이"
},
{
"code": "ms",
"lang": "Malay",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "harimau kertas"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papirtiger"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "papierowy tygrys"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tigre de papel"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bumážnyj tigr",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "бума́жный тигр"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tigre de papel"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "papperstiger"
},
{
"code": "tl",
"lang": "Tagalog",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "tigreng papel"
},
{
"code": "th",
"lang": "Thai",
"roman": "sʉ̌ʉa-grà-dàat",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"word": "เสือกระดาษ"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "kağıttan kaplan"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "paperóvyj tyhr",
"sense": "paper tiger",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "паперо́вий тигр"
}
],
"word": "paper tiger"
}
Download raw JSONL data for paper tiger meaning in All languages combined (7.2kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.