没辙

沒轍

méizhé

phrase HSK 7-9 #15,143

Meanings

Literally 'no track/rut' - no path forward, no way out

HSK 4

遇到这种情况真是没辙。

Yùdào zhèzhǒng qíngkuàng zhēnshì méizhé.

Running into this kind of situation, there's really nothing you can do.

HSK 5

他不听劝，我也没辙。

Tā bù tīng quàn, wǒ yě méizhé.

He won't listen to advice - I can't do anything about it.

没辙 is colloquial and very common in spoken Chinese, especially in northern dialects. More formal alternatives: 没办法, 束手无策.

memory

辙 means 'wheel rut/track.' No ruts = no path to follow = stuck with no way out.

没 méi

辙 zhé