釜底抽薪

- take away the firewood from under the cauldron -- a fundamental solution; adopt full measures (not half measures); cut the ground from under one's foot; cut the ground on which someone stands; extract the firewood from under the cauldron; pull firewood out of one's stove; pull out the firewood from below the cauldron so as to stop its boiling; removing burning wood from under the boiler; strike at the root of sth.; take a drastic measure to deal with a situation; take out burning embers from under the pot; withdraw fuel from under a boiling cauldron