Cortar un problema de tajo 

Pictures taken from Google Images, “Nip it in the bud”
Click on the image to watch some scenes from the program, “The Andy Griffith Show”

Meaning:

If you nip a problem or a bad situation in the bud, you stop it at an early stage before it spreads, develops or becomes worse.

Pictures taken from Google Images, “Nip it in the bud”
Click on the image to listen to the song “Nip it in the bud” ft. The B-52´s

Origin:

In the 1500´s, people used to say the expression “To nip it in the bloom” which literally means to prevent a flower from being born. What they meant was that they stopped something from developing since the very moment that it is starting. To nip means to stop something quickly and a bud is growth on a plant that will later become a flower.

Pictures taken from Google Images, “Nip it in the bud”
Click on the image to listen to the song, “One more day” from the movie Les Miserables (Nip in the bud, 1:56)

Example: