Embodiments of the invention disclose an unlocking method applied to a terminal and the terminal. The unlocking method is used for improving the security of terminal unlocking. The method provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the steps of acquiring X current sampling points along a current track of an unlocking pattern input by a terminal user, and obtaining coordinates of the X current sampling points; expanding the X current sampling points into N expanded sampling points by adopting an interpolation method according to the coordinates of the X current sampling points, and obtaining coordinates of the N expanded sampling points; calculating and obtaining an actual deviation D of the current track of the unlocking pattern input by the user relative to a reference track of the unlocking pattern by adopting a distance calculation method according to the coordinates of the N expanded sampling points and the coordinates of the N reference sampling points; and unlocking the terminal when a ratio of the actual deviation D to a reference deviation DM is less than or equal to a deviation value R.