cẩn tắc vô ưu, vô áy náy
better safe than sorry
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All languages English Tiếng Việt
cẩu lương
“Dog food” — public displays of affection force-fed to the single people watching.
cận thủy tri ngư, cận lâm thức điểu
Near water you learn fish; near forest you learn birds — knowledge grows where you live.
cậu cai nói dấu lông gà, cổ tay đeo nhẫn gọi là cậu cai. Ba năm được một chuyến sai, áo ngắn đi mượn, quần dài đi thuê
Master Cai sports a feather in his hat and a ring on his wrist — one errand in three years, the short coat borrowed and the long trousers hired — colonial petty rank, dressed entirely in loans.
cắm sào đợi nước
Pole planted, waiting for the tide — paused mid-river until conditions turn.
cắm sừng
to cuckold (one's husband)/cuckquean (one's wife); to put horns on (one's spouse); to be unfaithful to (one's spouse)
cắm đầu cắm cổ
Head down, neck down — rushing headlong, or slogging away without once looking up.
cắn răng, chằn con mắt
Teeth clenched, eyes stretched — enduring with the jaw shut and the gaze forced open.
cắt cổ con nít
Throat-cutting rates — extortionate, daylight-robbery pricing.
cắt dây bầu dây bí, chẳng ai cắt dây chị em
Cut the gourd vine, cut the squash vine — no one cuts the vine between sisters — kinship is the one uncuttable creeper.
cặp bài trùng
perfect pair; perfect match
cọc tìm trâu
The stake goes looking for the buffalo — things done backwards, against the natural order.
cố cùng liều thân
Cornered into staking one's very life — desperate, with nothing left to lose.
cố ư trung tất hình ư ngoại
What is stored within must show without — the inside writes itself on the face.
cốt nhục tương tàn
Flesh and bone devouring each other — kin turned on kin.
cổ kim
past and present; then and now
cổ tay em trắng như ngà, con mắt em liếc như là dao cau. Miệng cười như thể hoa ngâu, cái khăn đội đầu như thể hoa sen
Your wrist white as ivory, your glance a slicing areca knife, your smile a ngâu blossom, your headscarf a lotus — the inventory of infatuation.
cộng tươi
Cộng tươi — a fresh-faced heartthrob; a boy so clean-cut he looks factory-new.
cột đổ nhà xiêu
Pillars down, house aslant — a family estate in collapse.
cờ bạc là bác thằng bần Cửa nhà bán hết, tra chân vào cùm
Gambling is Brother Poverty's own uncle — the house sold off, and your feet in the stocks — the definitive verse against cards and dice.
cờ bạc sanh trộm cướp
Gambling breeds thieving — losses deep enough turn hands crooked.
cờ bạc về sáng
Gambling turns at dawn — the table's luck arrives when the lamps burn out; ruin keeps late hours.
cờ gian bạc lận
Cheating chess and crooked cards — games rigged to empty the other man's purse.
cờ tay ai người ấy phất, đèn nhà ai nhà ấy rạng
Whoever holds the flag waves it; whoever's house the lamp is in, it brightens — each to their own charge and glory.
cờ về tay ai nấy phất
Whoever holds the flag waves it — authority belongs to the hand it lands in.
cờ đến tay
The flag come to your hand — the moment of authority arrived; wave it.
cục tạ
Affectionately, one’s ball-and-chain — a partner jokingly called a heavy burden.
của chìm của nổi
Sunken wealth and floating wealth — assets seen and unseen; the visible fortune and the buried one.
của chẳng ngon chớ nào lỗ miệng
The gift needn't be delicious to honor the mouth — devotion, not delicacy, gives the offering its worth.
của chẳng ngon nhiều con cũng hết
Plain food vanishes where children are many — hungry numbers make any dish precious.
của chồng công vợ
The husband's earnings, the wife's keeping — property is his making and her minding, and both have the use of it.
của gối đầu bà già
Wealth under an old woman's pillow — savings kept where no saving is.
của là nuốm ruột
Property is a knot of one's gut — people grieve money as flesh; some die of the grieving.
của người phúc ta
Their goods, our blessing — profiting from what cost us nothing.
của thiên giả địa
Heaven's goods return to earth — ill-got wealth finds its way back out.
của thiên, trả địa
Close to the English saying: “Ill gotten, ill spent. (Mr. B Lam).”.
của thế gian, ai khôn ngoan thì đặng
The world's goods go to the clever — wealth circulates, and wit is the net that catches it passing.
của vắn mặt dài
Goods run short, faces stay long — the feast ends, the acquaintance doesn't; spend as if you'll meet again.
của ít lòng nhiều
possessing little and not giving any significant gifts, but being very warm-hearted instead
của đổ mà hốt
Scooping up what was spilled — salvage that never comes back whole.
củi tre một bọn, bài thập một môn
Bamboo kindling in one bundle, the tens in one suit — birds of a feather, cards of a suit.
củi đậu nấu đậu
Boiling beans over bean-stalk fire — a thing consumed by its own kind.
cứ bở thì đào
Where it crumbles, keep digging — press every soft spot to its bottom.
cứng đầu cứng cổ
Stiff-headed and stiff-necked — stubbornly defiant of all correction.
cứu vật vật trả ơn, cứu nhơn nhơn trả oán
Save a beast and it repays kindness; save a man and he repays spite — gratitude, the animals' virtue.
cử nhứt khả dĩ suy kỳ dư
From one instance, infer the rest — a single case unlocks its whole kind.
cửa hàng văn phòng phẩm
stationery shop
cửa hàng đồ làm vườn
garden-supplies shop
cửa Khổng sân Trình
The gate of Confucius, the yard of Trình — the classical world of scholars and their learning.
cửa đóng then cài
Door shut, bolt slid — the house, or the heart, closed for the season.
cửu hạn phùng cam vũ
Long drought meets sweet rain — relief at its most longed-for; one of the four classical joys.
cửu tử nhứt sanh
Nine parts death, one part life — odds narrowed to a single thread of survival.
cựa lắm càng sầy vẩy
A hard-up house bears clever children — want is the sharpest tutor.
c'est magnifique
C'est magnifique, mats ce rfest pas la guerre.
ca ira
The name, and refrain, of a popular patriotic song in France which became the Carillon National of the French
ca' canny
A Scots expression meaning "go easily," "don't exert yourself," It is used in trade-union slang for working to rule, and is the method adopted by workmen for the pur- pose of bringing pressure on the employers when, in the workmen's opinion, a strike would be hardly justifiable, expedient, or possible. Ca' is Scots caw, to drive or impel.
ca-sa
A writ of capias ad satisfaciendam.—Legal slang.
cab
A brothel. Mother: how many tails have you in your cab? how many girls have you in your bawdy house?
cab
In statutory language, "a hackney carriage drawn by one horse." Abbreviated from the French CABRIOLET; originally meaning "a light low chaise." The wags of Paris playing upon the word (quasi cabri au lait) used to call a superior turn-out of the kind a cabri au crême. Our abbreviation, which certainly smacks of slang, has been stamped with the authority of the Legislature, and has been honoured by universal custom.
cabbage
Cloth, stuff, or silk purloined by laylors from their employers, which they deposit in a place called HELL, or their EYE: from the first, when taxed, with their knavery, they equivocally swear, that if they have taken any, they wish they may find it in HELL; or, alluding to the second, protest, that what they have over and above is not more than they could put in their EYE.--When the scrotum is relaxed or whiffled, it is said they will not cabbage.
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