画龙点睛

huà lóng diǎn jīng

the touch that brings it to life

Character by character

画huà
paint

龙lóng
dragon

点diǎn
dot

睛jīng
eyes

最后这句话真是画龙点睛。

That last line really brings the whole thing to life.

Tone: positive (praise).

The painter Zhang Sengyou dotted the eyes on two temple-wall dragons and they flew away (《历代名画记》).

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