Glossary entry (derived from question below)
German term or phrase:
über den Tisch ziehen
English translation:
decived / took advantage of
German term
Satisfied clients worldwide.
Native in: Arabic 
, German
Works in: German to Arabic, Arabic to German, English to Arabic, and 1 more.
über den Tisch ziehen
Example:
"Stattdessen versucht er einen Bezug zu den von der Schwarzwald GmbH begebenen Mittelstandsanleihen zu konstruieren und verliert sich dabei in Polemik; es ist absurd, wenn der Kläger behauptet, die Beklagte habe ihn „über den Tisch gezogen“. "
Is using "pulled him over the barrel" appropriate in this context? What would be the formal alternative please?
Thank you in advance.
Feb 3, 2019 10:47: writeaway changed "Field (write-in)" from "(none)" to "colloquial expression used in a legal text"
Feb 8, 2019 09:33: Tatijana Kostovska Created KOG entry
Proposed translations
Germany
BA Degree, native English and German
Native in: English , German
Works in: German to English, German to Macedonian, Macedonian to German, and 3 more.
decived / took advantage of
deceived him
took advantage of him
stole him blind/took him for all he was worth/ripped him off
exploited
swindled
shanghaied
| agree |
Björn Vrooman
: Other answers are too tame. It's in quotation marks anyway; you shouldn't choose a "formal alternative." // Susie's fine too. Nowadays, you'd call it hustlin', probably... // You can't deny it's back, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Hustle
1 hr
|
|
And just WHAT is 'formal' in this document? Read something similar from 20 years ago, it will seem Shakespearean :-)!//Actually, hustled is from the 50s & 60s, very dated.//That'S nice to hear, it's a good word, but the song sucks.
|
|
| agree |
writeaway
: nice selection of options
23 hrs
|
|
Thank you, ma'am!
|
Germany
45 years experience
Native in: English (Variant: British)
Works in: German to English, French to English, Spanish to English, and 2 more.
outsmart / outwit
If you outsmart someone, you defeat them or gain an advantage over them in a clever and sometimes dishonest way.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/de/worterbuch/englisch/out...
United States
Creativity wins in the long run
Native in: German (Variant: Germany) , English (Variant: US)
Works in: German to English
pull one over on
Looking for something that has roughly the same register and is as widely used as the German idiom.
Compare with this:
"..Nixon finally realized Anderson had pulled one over on him." https://timeline.com/president-plot-kill-reporter-2739dc7351...
United States
Business management & linguistic quality
Native in: English 
Works in: German to English, English to German, English
Discussion
To have someone over a barrel means to put someone in a helpless position, to put someone in a difficult situation.
https://grammarist.com/idiom/over-a-barrel/
and:
https://deutschlernerblog.de/jemanden-ueber-den-tisch-ziehen...