趁火打劫 (chèn huǒ dǎ jié) — to exploit a crisis for personal gain; to take unfair advantage of a difficult situation
Definition
A chengyu meaning to exploit someone's crisis for selfish gain — the focus is opportunistic exploitation of another's misfortune, not mutual benefit or hard bargaining.
idiom
to exploit a crisis for personal gainto take unfair advantage of a difficult situation
Examples
- 趁火打劫，。Zhè jiā gōng sī chèn jìng zhēng duì shǒu pò chǎn shí chèn huǒ dǎ jié, dī jià shōu gòu le tā men de hé xīn jì shù.This company took advantage of its competitor's bankruptcy to buy up their core technology at a low price.
- ，趁火打劫，。Zāi nàn fā shēng hòu, yǒu xiē shāng jiā chèn huǒ dǎ jié, bǎ shēng huó bì xū pǐn de jià gé tái gāo le hǎo jǐ bèi.After the disaster, some businesses exploited the crisis and raised the prices of daily necessities several times over.
- 趁火打劫，，。Tā chèn péng you xiàn rù kùn jìng shí chèn huǒ dǎ jié, yǐ jí dī de lì xī jiè qián gěi duì fāng, què yāo qiú yòng fáng chǎn dǐ yā.He took advantage of his friend's predicament, lending money at a very low interest rate but demanding property as collateral.
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