一网打尽
yī wǎng dǎ jìn
to catch all in one net; to round up a whole gang at one stroke
Character by character
一yī
one
one
网wǎng
net
net
打dǎ
catch
catch
尽jìn
all
all
Example
警方经过三个月的调查，终于把这个诈骗团伙一网打尽。
After a three-month investigation the police finally rounded up the whole fraud ring.
Tone: neutral.
Usage and origin
Today it is mostly said of police catching a gang, or of sweeping up every prize or problem at once. The phrase goes back to the Song dynasty, when an official who had got a whole circle of rival scholars dismissed boasted that he had caught them all in one net. Used literally, as here of fine-mesh nets, it carries the reproach of leaving nothing behind.
Learn this in Lesson 167 · HSK 7–9: 长江十年禁渔 (Ten years without fishing on the Yangtze)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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