họa phù thân đái
Painting the talisman you wear yourself — issuing one's own credentials.
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họa phước vô môn, di nhơn tự triệu
Fortune and misfortune have no gate — each is invited by its own tenant.
học như gà đá vách
Studying like a chicken sparring a wall — effort loud, progress none.
học sư bất như học hữu
Learning from the master is less than learning from friends — peers teach what lecterns can't.
học thày chẳng tầy học bạn
Learning from the master is not learning from friends — the peer teaches what the lectern can't.
học trò xứ Quảng ra thi Thấy cô gái Huế bỏ đi không đành
The Quảng student came for the examinations, saw a Huế girl, and could not make himself leave — scholarship's oldest hazard.
học tài thi phận
Study makes the talent, the exam makes the fate — learning proposes, the examination hall disposes.
hỏa thượng thiêm du
Oil onto the fire — goading a blaze that needed calming.
hỏi sư mượn lược
Borrowing a comb from a monk — supply requested at the one address certain to lack it.
hỏng nồi vơ rế
Pot ruined, grab the trivet-ring — salvage snatched from the wreck.
hồ giả hổ oai
The fox borrowing the tiger's terror — swagger rented from the power standing behind.
hồn ai nấy giữ
Each soul keeps its own — every man for himself; mind your own fate.
Hồng Hài Nhi
Hồng Hài Nhi — 'Red Boy' from Journey to the West, repurposed for a young man dating a much older woman.
hồng nhan bạc phận
A rosy face, a thin fate — beauty shadowed by misfortune; the lovely are born to suffer.
hồng nhan hoạ thuỷ
charming beauty who makes men fall and leads to disasters (such as a loss of wealth or reputation, or a toppled nation); dangerous woman; femme fatale
hồng-nhan đa truân
The rosy-cheeked meet many trials — beauty's toll, paid in troubles.
hổ phụ sinh hổ tử
father tigers produce child tigers
hộ hôn điền thổ, vạn cổ chi thù
Marriages, households and land — the feuds of ten thousand years; where lawsuits never die.
hội Thầy, giã La, bơi Đăm, rước Giá
Thầy's festival, La's rice-pounding, Đăm's regatta, Giá's procession — the spring calendar's four great outings.
hộp đựng kính áp tròng
contact lens case
hỡi cô tát nước bên đàng Sao cô tát ánh trăng vàng đổ đi
O girl bailing water by the road — why bail the golden moonlight and pour it away — courtship's most famous opening line.
hợp đồng âm dương
A yin-yang contract — the under-the-table twin of the official deal.
hữu cầu tất ứng
Ask and it answers — the responsive shrine; sincerity always finds its ear.
hữu danh nhàn phú quí, vô sự tiểu thần tiên
Famous and rich at leisure, or unbothered as a minor immortal — two blessings of equal rank.
hữu duyên thiên lý ngộ
With affinity, a thousand miles still meet — the fated find each other across any distance.
hữu lao vô công
The toil real, the credit missing — sweat entered in no ledger.
hữu quá tắc cải
Having a fault, mend it — error is only error once it's kept.
hữu sự bái tứ phương
In need, one bows to the four directions — necessity makes everyone your superior.
hữu thuỷ vô chung
to have a beginning but not an end
hữu thành tắc hữu thần
Where there is sincerity, there are the gods — devotion is what the spirits answer.
hữu thân hữu khổ
A body means burdens — to exist at all is to carry.
hữu thạnh hữu suy
Every flourishing has its fading — the tide chart of all fortune.
hữu thế bất khả ỷ tận
Never lean your whole weight on power — nor spend your whole stock of luck; keep reserves of both.
hữu xạ tự nhiên hương
"A good product does not need advertising.".
hỷ mũi chưa sạch
Nose not yet wiped clean — maturity claimed several years early.
h umber
See Spenser's Faerie Queene, II, x, 16:— He [Locrine] then encountred, a confused rout, Forbye the River that whylome was hight The ancient Abus . . .
Habit is a great deadener. (Samuel Beckett)
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
hack and slash
a style of gaming or fiction involving violent combat
hack it
to manage or cope with something
hack off
To remove by hacking; to cut off.
Hackell's Coit
A vast stone said to weigh about 30 tons, near Stanton Drew, Somerset; so called from a tradition that it was a quoit or coit thrown by Sir John Hautville. In Wiltshire three huge stones near Kennet are called the DeviVs coits.
hackle
Pluck; "to show HACKLE," to be willing to fight. HACKLES are the long feathers on the back of a cock’s neck, which he erects when angry,—hence the metaphor.
hackney writer
One who writes for attornies or booksellers.
hackslaver
To stammer in one’s speech, like a dunce at his lesson.
hackum
Captain Hackum; a bravo, a slasher.
had better
should do something to avoid trouble or problems
had'em
He has been at Had'em, and came home by Clapham; said of one who has caught the venereal disease.
hades was stern and terrible
Legend says that as she was amusing herself in the meadows of Sicily Pluto seized her and carried her off in his chariot to the infernal regions for his bride. In her terror she dropped some of the lilies she had been gathering, and they turned to daf- fodils.
hag
A woman.
haggart
Life of David Haggart, alias John Wilson, alias Barney M’Coul, written by himself while under sentence of death, curious frontispiece of the prisoner in irons, intermixed with all the Slang and Cant words of the day, to which is added a Glossary of the same, 12mo. 1821.
Haif Joe
A Portuguese coin (worth about $4), current on the Atlantic coast of the U.S.A. in the 18th century.
hail and farewell
A greeting and goodbye at the same time
hail fellow well met
One on easy, familiar terms; an intimate acquaintance. Hail fellow well met, all dirty and wet; Find out, if you can, who's master, who's man. SWIFT: My Lady's Lamentation.
hair of the dog
A small amount of alcohol consumed to alleviate a hangover
hair out of place
completely perfect or immaculate
Hair Stane
A hoar-stone (#.v.) is so called in Scotland, Hajar al-Aswad (ha/ jaral as' wad). The fa- mous black stone in the north-east corner of the Kaaba; it is an irregular oval, about 7 in. in breadth, and is surrounded with a circle of gold. The legend is that when Abraham wished to build the Kaaba, the stones came to him of their own accord, and the patriarch commanded all the faithful to kiss this one.
hair's breadth
a very small distance or amount
hair-breadth 'scape
A very narrow escape from some danger or evil. In measurement the forty-eighth part of an inch is called a "hair- breadth.
hairy canary
The penis.
hairy molly
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.