gương tày liếp
A warning big as a bamboo screen — a predecessor's failure hung up where none can miss it.
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All languages English Tiếng Việt
gương vỡ lại lành
a situation where a couple reunites after their break-up or divorce
gạn đục khơi trong
separate the wheat from the chaff
gạo châu củi quế
Rice dear as pearls, firewood dear as cinnamon — the market at famine prices.
gạo đã thành cơm
The rice is already cooked — what's done has set and cannot be uncooked.
gảy đòn gánh giữa đường
The carrying-pole snapping mid-road — a marriage broken in its middle years.
gấu bự
Big bear — an extra-sized (or extra-beloved) boyfriend/girlfriend; “gấu” is the classic slang for one’s S.O.
gần chùa gọi bụt bằng anh
to treat somebody, especially a superior, overly casually due to familiarity
gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sáng
You take on the character of the company you keep — bad company corrupts, good company uplifts.
gần nhà xa ngõ
Near by houses, far by lanes — neighbors the map calls close and the path calls distant.
gần đàng xa ngõ
Near by the road, far by the gate — neighbors in distance, strangers in visits.
gần đất xa trời
to have one foot in the grave; to be dying; to be close to death
gậy bà đập lưng bà
Grandma's own stick lands on grandma's back — the weapon returning to its owner.
gậy ông đập lưng ông
Close to the English saying: “Hoist with his own petard.”.
gắng công mài sắt, chầy ngày nên kim
Grind the iron long enough and it becomes a needle — patience is the whole of the craft.
gắp lửa bỏ tay người
to pass the buck; to weasel out; to slander
gắt như mắm tôm
easily irritable
gọi bụt bằng anh
Calling the Buddha 'big brother' — familiarity at maximum insolence.
gọi đồ ăn, đồ uống
to order food and drinks
gội đầu vấn tóc
Washing the hair and binding it up — the courteous welcome owed to a worthy person.
gởi trấng cho ác
Entrusting eggs to the raven — deposit made straight into the appetite of the keeper.
gỡ rối tơ lòng
Untangling the heart's silk — easing someone's knotted troubles; the agony-aunt's trade.
gừng càng già càng cay
the older a person is, the wiser they are; a person is more and more experienced as they age
gửi trứng cho ác
to hand or entrust one's treasure to a feigning baddie
gab
GABBER or GABBLE, talk; "gift of the GAB," loquacity, or natural talent for speech-making.—Anglo-Norman; GAB is also found in the Danish and Old Norse.
Gabble Ratchet
See GABRIEL'S HOUNDS. Gabelle (gabelO. A tax on salt. All the salt made in France had to be brought to the royal warehouses, and was there sold at a price fixed by the Government. The iniquity was that some provinces had to pay twice as much as others. It was abolished in 1789, together with the corvee (forced labour on the roads).
gaby
A simpleton, a country bumpkin. Probably from gape.
gacked
Drunk.
gad
A trapesing slatternly woman.—Gipsy. Anglo-Saxon, GÆDELING.
gad-so
An exclamation said to be derived from the Italian word cazzo.
gadding the hoof
Going without shoes. GADDING, roaming about, although used in an old translation of the Bible, is now only heard amongst the lower orders.
gaff
A fair. The drop coves maced the joskins at the gaff; the ring-droppers cheated the countryman at the fair.
gaff
A penny play-house, in which talking is not permitted on the stage. See PENNY GAFF.
gaffer
A master, or employer; term used by "navvies," and general in Lancashire and North of England. Early English for an old man. See "BLOW THE GAFF."
gaffing
Tossing halfpence, or counters.—North, where it means tossing up three halfpennies. One man tosses, and another calls. Sometimes the coins are tossed from a stick, and the tosser keeps those which fall heads uppermost.
gag
An instrument used chiefly by housebreakers and thieves, for propping open the mouth of a person robbed, thereby to prevent his calling out for assistance.
gag
A lie; "a GAG he told to the beak."—Thieves’ Cant.
gag -man
One who is employed to supply jokes for films or radio programmes.
gag a dog off a gut wagon
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
gage
Marijuana
gage
A quart pot, or a pint; also a pipe. CANT.
gage
A small quantity of anything; as "a GAGE of tobacco," meaning a pipeful; "a GAGE of gin," a glassful. GAGE was, in the last century, a chamber utensil.
gaggers
High and Low. Cheats, who by sham pretences, and wonderful stories of their sufferings, impose on the credulity of well meaning people. See RUM GAGGER.
gagging for it
Desperate or eager for something, often sex or attention
Gai Saber
Its full title was "The Very Gay Company of the Seven Troubadours of Toulouse.
Gaiety Girl
One of the beauty chorus for which the old Gaiety Theatre in the Strand was famous in the '90s and Edwardian days. Several of them married into the peerage.
gain momentum
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
gain time
To delay or postpone something in order to have more time
Galeazzo's Lent
A form of torture devised by Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, 1395- 1402, calculated to prolong the unfortunate victim's life for forty days.
galeny
Old cant term for a fowl of any kind; now a respectable word in the West of England, signifying a Guinea fowl.—Vide Grose. Latin, GALLINA.
galimaufrey
A hodgepodge made up of the remnants and scraps of the larder.
gall
His gall is not yet broken; a saying used in prisons of a man just brought in, who appears dejected.
gall and wormwood
Something very bitter or unpleasant to endure
gall and wormwood
Extremely disagreeable and annoying. . And I said, My strength and my nope is perished from the Lord: Remembering my affliction _and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. — Lam. iii, 18, 19.
gallanty show
An exhibition in which black figures are shown on a white sheet to accompanying dialogue. Generally given at night by "Punch and Judy" men.
galley foist
A city barge, used formerly on the lord mayor's day, when he was sworn in at Westminster.
Galley Halfpence
Silver coin brought over by merchants ("galley-men") from Genoa, who
Gallia Comata
That part of Gaul which belonged to the Roman emperor, and was governed by legates (legati), was so called from the long hair (coma) worn by the inhabitants flowing over their shoulders.
Gallic Wars
This word, converted into Tnnovantes, gave rise to the myth that the people referred to came from Troy. Sec TROYNOVANT.
gallied
Hurried, vexed, over-fatigued, perhaps like a galley slave.
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