paper tiger
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Something that appears powerful but is actually weak or ineffective
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
một thứ có vẻ mạnh mẽ nhưng thực sự yếu hoặc không hiệu quả
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a tiger made of paper
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The new policy is a paper tiger, it has no real impact
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “paper tiger” mean?
Something that appears powerful but is actually weak or ineffective Literally: a tiger made of paper
Is “paper tiger” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.