da bọc xương
nothing but skin and bones; mere bag of bones
Browse Tiếng Việt 3881
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
da cóc mà bọc bột-lọc, bột-lọc mà bọc hòn than
Toad-skin wrapping tapioca-white, wrapping a coal-black heart — the longan riddle; appearances nested three layers deep.
dai như chão
Tough as an old mooring rope — chewy, stubborn, unbreakable.
dai như giẻ
Stuck like lacquer — an attachment nothing peels.
dai đỉa đói
Clingy as a starved leech — attachment that feeds as it holds.
danh bất hư truyền
reputation is well merited
danh chính ngôn thuận
to be fitting and proper; to be perfectly justified or deserved
danh lam thắng cảnh
famous sights and beautiful landscapes; splendid tourist attractions
danh thanh đại chấn
A name that shakes the air — renown that resounds far and wide.
danh ô nan thục
A soiled name has no ransom — reputation, once fouled, is past buying back.
dao cau rọc lá trầu vàng Mắt anh anh liếc,mắt nàng nàng đưa
The areca knife slits the golden betel leaf; my eye slides to you and yours to me — flirtation sharp and folded as the quid itself.
dao năng liếc thì sắc
A blade often honed stays sharp — practice is the whetstone of every skill.
dc
Texting shortcut for “được” — can / OK / fine.
deadline dí
Deadline in hot pursuit — "dí" is the chase: the work is behind you, gaining, and your weekend is what it eats.
di tửu vô lượng bất cập loạn
Wine without measure, but never to disorder — drink to your capacity's edge and not a cup past.
dinh tất dật
What is full must overflow — at the brim, stop pouring.
dinh, hư, tiêu, trưởng
Waxing, waning, wearing, growing — a life keeps the moon's four seasons.
diễn sâu
Overacting the moment — performing emotions several sizes too deep for the occasion, on camera or off.
diện phục tâm bất phục
The face submits, the heart does not — obedience worn on the features and nowhere else.
diệt địa giai nhiên
Change the soil, the same nature — the worthy stay worthy wherever transplanted.
dm
Vulgar expletive initialism (đ* má) — “damn it / f—”. Extremely common online as pure exclamation; still an obscenity.
dth
Texting shortcut for “dễ thương” — cute, adorable.
du thủ du thực
Idle hands, drifting mouth — living loose on play and scrounged meals.
duyên ai nấy gặp
Each meets the match fate kept — marriages arrive by their own appointment.
duyên cầm sắt
The lute-and-zither bond — a marriage in true harmony.
duyên sắt cầm
The zither-and-lute bond — a couple in close, harmonious love.
duyện mộc cầu ngư
Climbing a tree to catch fish — seeking where the sought has never lived.
dài lưng tốn vải
a long back wastes cloth
dày ăn mỏng làm
Thick at eating, thin at working — greedy at the table, lazy at the task.
dân chơi nửa mùa
A half-season player — someone performing the high-roller lifestyle on a starter budget; the image is rented, the swagger borrowed.
dân dĩ thực vi tiên
To the people, food comes first — a state that would keep its people must first keep them fed.
dân dữ dân tề
The people stand level with the people — under the law all heads are black and all blood red.
dân như gỗ tròn
The people are round timber — rolled whichever way the roller pleases; a ruler's cynical geometry.
dân trời đất
A heaven-and-earth character — reckless past persuading, answerable to sky alone.
dân Zalo
A gentle jab at the terminally un-trendy: someone who lives on Zalo — the workhorse chat app of parents and office groups — instead of TikTok or Threads, and so misses every new meme and slang wave.
dâu dữ mất họ
A cruel daughter-in-law loses the clan — one harsh bride and the family scatters.
dâu hiền hơn con gái, rể hiền hơn con giai
A kind daughter-in-law beats a daughter; a kind son-in-law beats a son — goodness upgrades the in-law past the blood.
dâu hiền là gái, rể thảo là trai
A gentle daughter-in-law is a daughter; a devoted son-in-law is a son — kindness makes the in-law kin.
dâu là con, rể là khách
The daughter-in-law is a daughter; the son-in-law is a guest — the asymmetry of in-law belonging.
dây dùi khó dứt
A cord stretched taut is soonest snapped — gentleness lasts; rigidity breaks.
dây mơ rễ má
distant blood tie
dã tràng se cát biển đông, nhọc nhằn mà chẳng nên công cán gì
The sand-crab rolls its pellets in the eastern sea — endless toil, and not one grain of credit to keep.
dì ruột thương cháu như con Rủi mà không mẹ cháu còn cậy trông vào ai
A mother's sister loves the child as her own — should the mother be lost, on whom else would the child lean.
dín gió e sương
Shrinking from wind, shy of dew — the sheltered timidity of a classical maiden.
dính như sơn
Mushy as fermented rice-mash — dissolved past shape.
dính phốt
To get caught in a scandal — the stain sticks to you once your misstep hits the feed.
dò sông dò biển còn dò, nào ai bẻ thước mà đo lòng người
Rivers and seas can be sounded, but who breaks off a ruler for the human heart — the one depth without a gauge.
dòng nào sanh giống ấy
Each line breeds its own kind — tiger fathers, tiger sons.
dòng-dòng theo nạ
Fry trailing their mother — the small following the parent fin to fin.
dõng bất quá thiên, cường bất quá lý
Force stops short of heaven, stubbornness short of reason — neither might nor obstinacy outlasts what's right.
dù ai nói ngả nói nghiêng, lòng ta vẫn vững như kiềng ba chân
Let them talk crooked or slanted — my heart stands firm as a three-legged trivet — constancy that gossip cannot tip.
dù ai đi ngược về xuôi Nhớ ngày giỗ tổ mùng mười tháng ba
Wherever you travel, up-country or down, remember the Ancestor Festival on the tenth of the third month — the Hùng Kings' day binding all Vietnamese.
dù ai đi ngược về xuôi, cơm nắm lá cọ là người sông Thao
Upstream or down, the rice-ball wrapped in cọ leaf marks the Sông Thao native — identity carried in a packed lunch.
dùi đánh đục, đục đánh săng
The mallet drives the chisel, the chisel bites the timber — work passed link by link down the line until it lands.
dăm bữa nửa tháng
soonish; in the coming days
dĩ hoà vi quý
Making peace is treasured.
dĩ hòa vi quới
Take harmony as the treasure — concord above winning, in every shared roof and market.
dĩ nông vi bổn
Take farming as the foundation — of the four estates, the plow feeds the other three.
dĩ đào vi thượng sách
Flight is the best of the thirty-six stratagems — when all plans fail, the one that saves you is leaving.
dĩ độc trị độc
"The best way to deal with an opponent is to fight back with similair weapons or tactics.".
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