擒贼擒王 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to defeat the enemy by capturing their leader

Character by character

• 擒qínto arrest, to capture, to seize
• 贼zéithief, traitor; cunning, sly
• 擒qínto arrest, to capture, to seize
• 王wángking, ruler; royal; surname

Idioms sharing a character

• 手到擒来 shǒu dào qín lái
• 束手就擒 shù shǒu jiù qín
• 乱臣贼子 luàn chén zéi zǐ
• 做贼心虚 zuò zéi xīn xū
• 民贼独夫 mín zéi dú fū
• 独夫民贼 dú fū mín zéi
• 认贼作父 rèn zéi zuò fù
• 贼喊捉贼 zéi hǎn zhuō zéi
• 贼眉鼠眼 zéi méi shǔ yǎn
• 关门捉贼 guān mén zhuō zéi

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.