一刀切

yīdāoqiē

idiom #68,940

Meanings

1 to cut everything with one stroke
2 to apply a blanket rule; one-size-fits-all
3 to treat different cases identically

Characters

Examples

HSK 2

对学生的要求不该一刀切。

Duì xuéshēng de yāoqiú bù gāi yīdāoqiē.

Students shouldn't all be held to exactly the same standard.

HSK 5

一刀切的管理只会打击积极性。

Yīdāoqiē de guǎnlǐ zhǐ huì dǎjī jījíxìng.

Blanket management will only kill initiative.

HSK 6

政策不能一刀切，要具体情况具体分析。

Zhèngcè bùnéng yīdāoqiē, yào jùtǐ qíngkuàng jùtǐ fēnxī.

Policy can't be one-size-fits-all - each situation has to be looked at on its own terms.

Tips

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Heavily used in modern Chinese policy and management discourse, almost always negatively: 不能一刀切 ('we can't apply a blanket rule'). The image is a single knife slicing everything to the same length regardless of what it is.

Stroke Order

一 yī

刀 dāo

切 qiē