杜绝
dù jué · HSK 7
to put an end to
🚫✂️ 杜 block + 绝 sever — bar the door and cut the rope for good
杜 once referred to a birch tree used to bar doorways; 绝 means to cut off entirely. Together they say: block the entry AND sever the connection so the problem never comes back.
绝 — silk 纟 + 巴 (phonetic-ish, knife cutting threads)
绝 originally depicted cutting silk threads with a knife, conveying the idea of severing or cutting off completely. From this concrete sense it extended to mean 'to break off,' 'exhausted,' and figuratively 'absolute' or 'extreme.' The simplified form replaced the older right-hand component with 巴.