没辙

沒轍

méizhé

phrase HSK 7 #15,143

Meanings

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

Tā bù tīng quàn, wǒ yě méizhé.

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

Yùdào zhè zhǒng qíngkuàng zhēn shì méizhé.

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

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