paper tiger

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

paper tiger (plural paper tigers)

1. (idiomatic) A seemingly fierce or powerful person, country or organisation without the ability to back up their words; apparently powerful but actually ineffective.

   Synonym: sheep in wolf's clothing

   Antonym: wolf in sheep's clothing

   • 2008 August 23, Ian Kershaw, “The twisted road to war”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     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.

   • 2010 October 11, Roger Cohen, “Iran, the Paper Tiger”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     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.

Translations

paper tiger

• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 好哄頭／好哄头 (hó-háⁿ-thâu)

  Mandarin: 紙老虎／纸老虎 (zh) (zhǐlǎohǔ)

• Danish: papirtiger c
• Dutch: papieren tijger m
• Esperanto: papera tigro
• Finnish: paperitiikeri (fi)
• French: tigre de papier (fr) m, colosse aux pieds d’argile (fr) m
• Galician: tigre de papel m
• German: Papiertiger (de) m
• Greek: χάρτινη τίγρη f (chártini tígri)
• Hebrew: רוח וצלצולים
• Indonesian: harimau kertas
• Irish: tíogar páipéir m
• Italian: tigre di carta f, scatola vuota f
• Japanese: 張り子の虎 (はりこのとら, hariko no tora)
• Khmer: ខ្លាក្រដាស (klaa krɑdaah)
• Korean: 종이호랑이 (jong'ihorang'i)
• Malay: harimau kertas
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: papirtiger (no) m

• Polish: papierowy tygrys (pl) m
• Portuguese: tigre de papel (pt) m
• Russian: бума́жный тигр (ru) m (bumážnyj tigr)
• Spanish: tigre de papel m
• Swedish: papperstiger (sv) c
• Tagalog: tigreng papel
• Thai: เสือกระดาษ (th) (sʉ̌ʉa-grà-dàat)
• Turkish: kağıttan kaplan pl
• Ukrainian: паперо́вий тигр m (paperóvyj tyhr)

See also

• all bark and no bite, one's bark is worse than one's bite