袋ふくろのネズミ

ふ

く

ろ

の

ね

ず

み

Meanings

1

expression, noun

trapped with no way out; rat in a bag

Idiomatic expression describing a situation where someone is cornered or has no escape. The literal image is a rat trapped in a bag.

警けい察さつに囲かこまれて、犯はん人にんは袋ふくろのネズミだった。

Surrounded by the police, the criminal was like a rat in a bag.

出で口ぐちをふさがれて、私わたしたちは袋ふくろのネズミ状じょう態たいだ。

With the exit blocked, we're trapped like rats in a bag.

Kanji

袋sack, bag, pouch
鼠rat, mouse, dark gray

Related words

絶ぜっ体たい絶ぜつ命めい
A more formal four-character compound meaning 'desperate situation with no escape', while 袋のネズミ is a vivid, colloquial metaphor.
追おい詰つめられる
Verb meaning 'to be cornered' or 'driven into a corner', describing the action rather than the state.

Written forms

袋ふくろのネズミ
Common spelling using katakana for ネズミ, widely used in modern writing.
袋ふくろの鼠ねずみ
Kanji spelling for 鼠, more formal or literary.
袋ふくろのねずみ
All-hiragana spelling, sometimes used for clarity or in children's materials.

Etymology

Literally 'rat in a bag'. The phrase evokes the image of a rat trapped in a bag with no way to escape, used metaphorically for a person in an inescapable predicament.