调虎离山
diào hǔ lí shān
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 調虎離山
To trick someone into leaving their base or strong position so that you can act while they are away. It is one of the classic Thirty-Six Stratagems and is now used for any ruse of this kind.
Dụ hổ rời khỏi núi: lừa cho đối phương rời khỏi nơi họ có lợi thế để mình dễ bề hành động. Vốn là một kế trong Ba mươi sáu kế, nay dùng cho mọi mưu mẹo kiểu này.
Register: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 061 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 调/調 = điệu; etymology of “điệu hổ li sơn” = 調虎離山 · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “điệu hổ li sơn” (dieu-ho-li-son). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “调虎离山” mean?
To trick someone into leaving their base or strong position so that you can act while they are away. It is one of the classic Thirty-Six Stratagems and is now used for any ruse of this kind. Literally: move the tiger away from the mountain
Is “调虎离山” formal or informal?
调虎离山 is generally neutral.