The Chinese word **活捉** (huózhuō) is a verb-object compound formed by combining the adjective **活** (huó), meaning "alive" or "living," with the verb **捉** (zhuō), meaning "to catch" or "to seize." The structure follows a common pattern in Chinese where a descriptive element modifies the action, literally meaning "to catch alive." It functions idiomatically to mean "to capture alive" (as opposed to killing), often used in military, policing, or metaphorical contexts to denote taking someone or something prisoner without causing its death.