# to outwit the Cyclops

idiom · CEFR C1

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/to-outwit-the-cyclops
Updated: 2026-07-29

## Meaning

To defeat a much stronger opponent by using cleverness rather than force.

## Examples

- The little startup managed to outwit the Cyclops and win the contract.
- Outnumbered and outspent, the small firm chose to outwit the Cyclops, using a clever ad campaign instead of a bidding war.
- Facing a rival with ten times the budget, the challenger set out to outwit the Cyclops, exploiting a gap in the giant's supply chain that raw spending power had left carelessly exposed.

## Origin

Sailing home from Troy, Odysseus and his men landed on a wild island and wandered, hungry, into a giant's cave. It belonged to Polyphemus, a Cyclops — a towering one-eyed monster, a son of the sea-god, who herded sheep and cared nothing for the laws of gods or men. The Cyclops came home, rolled a boulder across the mouth of the cave that no twenty men could shift, and made his supper of two of Odysseus' crew. They were trapped. They could not simply kill the giant, for then no one could move the great stone — and even had they tried, brute strength against such a creature was hopeless. So Odysseus turned to his sharpest weapon, his mind. He offered the giant strong wine, and as it took hold he told him, with a sly smile, that his name was Nobody. When the Cyclops fell into a drunken sleep, the men heated a great stake in the fire and drove it into his single eye. Blinded and bellowing, Polyphemus called to his fellow giants for help — but when they asked who had hurt him, he roared that Nobody had done it, and they shrugged and went away. At dawn Odysseus lashed his men beneath the giant's own sheep, and they rode out to freedom under the blind monster's groping hands. To outwit the Cyclops is to do just that — to beat an enemy far stronger than yourself not by matching his strength, but by being cleverer than he ever thought you could be.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.