DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

束手就擒

Mandarin · pinyin shù shǒu jiù qín

(lit.) to submit to having one's hands tied and being taken prisoner (idiom)
(fig.) to surrender without a fight

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

束: shù · bind, control, restrain; bale
手: shǒu · hand
就: jiù · just, simply; to come, go to; to approach, near
擒: qín · catch, capture, seize, arrest

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–3–4–2 · shu4 shou3 jiu4 qin2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

束手就擒 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cuk1 sau2 zau6 kam4

Cantonese word readings for 束手就擒. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to have one's hands tied and wait to be captured

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack