关门捉贼

Pronunciation: guān mén zhuō zéi Literal meaning: Shut the door catch thief

Origin & Usage

The twenty-second of the Thirty-Six Stratagems: against a small and mobile enemy, close the escape first and fight second, because a force you cannot catch will simply return. Shut (关) the door (门) and take (捉) the thief (贼). The stratagem is careful to limit itself to a weak opponent — cornering a strong one produces the desperate resistance the tactic is meant to avoid — and that qualification is generally lost when the phrase is used outside its source.

Examples

English: "By limiting options, they effectively trapped their competitor in a corner."

Chinese: 通过限制选择，他们有效地将竞争对手逼入了绝境。