Are there figurative or idiomatic English expressions to mean hindering a person in achieving work / attempt?
I think cook someone's goose and spike someone's guns come closest in meaning.
cook someone's goose: if you cook someone's goose, you do something that spoils their plans and prevents them from succeeding.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/cook+goose
Note: There is also "(someone's) goose is cooked" version. Apparently, it is more common.
spike someone's guns: To frustrate a person's efforts or designs; to undercut, to render helpless.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spike_someone%27s_guns
There are also other similar idioms that you can use depending on the context:
- cut the ground from under someone's feet
- pull the rug out (from under someone)
- put a spoke in somebody's wheel
- throw a monkey wrench in the works (AmE)
- throw a spanner in the works (BrE)
- rain on someone's parade
- stand in someone's way
Note: You also mentioned the idiom trip someone up in your question which is partially what you are asking. But it doesn't necessarily indicate that you are hindering someone's success.
[with object] (trip someone up) Detect or expose someone in a mistake or inconsistency:
the man was determined to trip him up on his economics
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/trip
Note 2: If you want to use a career related phrase, you can consider ruin someone's career.
Also, this Ngram result might give an idea how common these phrases are. (I didn't include "stand in someone's way" because it has other broader senses)
As a lighter hearted version of the Japanese ashi o hipparu, "used when somebody is nitpicking your error or misstatement" may I suggest the flowing idiom bring somebody down a peg or two
This is used in those instances when a braggart or someone too big for their boots needs a reminder that they are not as perfect or talented as they think. It shouldn't involve public humiliation (although I wouldn't exclude it categorically) but it should wound or prick the offender's pride.
The definition that The Phrase Finder gives is
To 'take (or pull, or bring) down a peg (or two)' is to lower someone's high opinion of themselves.
I think he needs taking down a peg or two.
good to see United taken down a peg or two last evening
Etymonline dates the phrase as far back as the 1580s
Another related idiom is to knock somebody off his/her pedestal
Cambridge Dictionaries Online
to show people that someone is not as perfect as they seem to be:
EDIT
Here is a Google Ngram chart illustrating how frequent the following expressions are: cooked his goose, spiked his gun, took him down a peg, bring him down a peg, off his pedestal in the English corpus from 1900 to 2000. Click on the link to see a larger version and visit the results listed at the bottom of the page. Failing that, see the comments below.
