A person or thing that appears threatening but is ineffectual.
纸老虎（指外强中干的人或物）
Example sentencesExamples
We are fond of making decrees, we even specialize in doing it, but a lot of the regulations made by the House of Representatives are only paper tigers.
Italy's inefficient bureaucracy, the lack of the technology required to impose the new legislation, bad planning and underfunding threaten to make the new law yet another paper tiger.
A general thrust of my argument is that the postmodern turn in anthropology threatens to be a paper tiger.
In the event, it turns out that the SEC has imposed no sanction of any material consequence, and is in danger of becoming a paper tiger under new chairman, Harvey Pitt.
All this activity generated little pressure on legislators, making Schwarzenegger look like a possible paper tiger, very popular with the public but not able to generate much pressure to move legislative votes.
Definition of paper tiger in US English:
paper tiger
nounˈpāpər ˈtīɡərˈpeɪpər ˈtaɪɡər
A person or thing that appears threatening but is ineffectual.
纸老虎（指外强中干的人或物）
Example sentencesExamples
We are fond of making decrees, we even specialize in doing it, but a lot of the regulations made by the House of Representatives are only paper tigers.
All this activity generated little pressure on legislators, making Schwarzenegger look like a possible paper tiger, very popular with the public but not able to generate much pressure to move legislative votes.
In the event, it turns out that the SEC has imposed no sanction of any material consequence, and is in danger of becoming a paper tiger under new chairman, Harvey Pitt.
A general thrust of my argument is that the postmodern turn in anthropology threatens to be a paper tiger.
Italy's inefficient bureaucracy, the lack of the technology required to impose the new legislation, bad planning and underfunding threaten to make the new law yet another paper tiger.