nước sông không phạm nước giếng
people should keep to themselves and mind their own business
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nước Sơn La, ma Vạn Bú
Sơn La's waters, Vạn Bú's ghosts — the old dread litany of the malarial highlands.
nước Thanh Mai đi hai về một
The waters of Thanh Mai: two go, one returns — the malarial uplands' grim arithmetic.
nước đến chân
Water at the shins — the deadline arrived before the planning did.
nước đến chân mới nhảy
To put things off until the situation is urgent, and only act at the last possible moment.
nước đục thả câu
to fish in troubled waters
nấu sử sôi kinh
Boiling the histories and simmering the classics — grinding study for the examinations.
nấu xói
To badmouth or gossip about someone — "nói xấu" with its syllable onsets swapped nói-lái-style, written backwards online to slip past keyword filters and the subject's own searches.
nắc
To thrust during sex — blunt, vulgar bedroom verb.
nắm thằng có tóc, không ai nắm kẻ trọc đầu
if you're gonna grab onto someone, grab onto one with hair, don't grab onto a bald one
nắng bề nào, che theo bề ấy
Whichever side the sun beats, shade that side — adjust your shelter to the moment's glare.
nắng lửa mưa dầu
Fire-hot sun and oil-thick rain — weather, or fortune, at its most punishing.
nằm gai nếm mật
to undergo self-imposed hardships; to nurse vengeance
nằm giường cá nhân
Sleeping in a single bunk — barracks life; the lean communal years remembered in one bed-frame.
nằm mèo xó bếp
The cat curled in the kitchen corner — idleness installed at the warmest spot.
nằm ngửa nhổ ngược
Lying face-up and spitting upward — the insult that lands back on its author.
nặng gánh san hà
Heavy with the burden of rivers and mountains — carrying the weight of great undertakings.
nếm mật nằm gai
to undergo self-imposed hardships; to nurse vengeance; to endure hardships to accomplish some ambition
nể luôn
Genuine hats-off respect — "nể" (to be impressed by) sealed with "luôn": admiration you didn't plan on giving but must.
nịch ái bất minh, tham đắc vô yểm
Doting blinds and greed never fills — love without eyes, appetite without floor.
nối dáo cho giặc
Splicing a lance for the invader — arming the very hand raised against you.
nối dây tơ hồng
Tying the rose-silk thread — getting a couple married; performing the wedding.
nối giáo cho giặc
Passing the enemy your lance — abetting the foe; arming the wrongdoer.
nối gót
follow in someone's footsteps
nồi da xáo thịt
Boiling the flesh in a pot of its own skin — kin savaging kin; the family consuming itself.
nồi méo úp vung méo
A warped pot gets a warped lid — every misshape finds its matching cover.
nồi nào úp vung nấy
Every person has a fitting match — said of couples who suit each other (sometimes teasingly, of matched flaws).
nổi cơn tam bành
to boil over with anger; to fly into a rage
nổi trận lôi đình
Erupting in a thunderclap rage — fury like a storm breaking.
nội bất xuất, ngoại bất nhập
nothing inside can come out, nothing outside can come in
nội gia nô tỉ, xuất gia công khanh
Servant within the gate, minister beyond it — humility at home, dignity abroad.
nội gia tạo ác, ngoại kỉ tri văn
Shame made indoors is heard outdoors — the house's walls were never soundproof.
nợ chúa Chổm
Debts like Lord Chổm's — owing in every direction, legend-grade insolvency.
nợ lãnh là nợ mình
A guaranteed debt is your debt — co-sign and you've already begun repaying.
nợ như chúa Chổm
to be heavily indebted
nợ tiền kiếp
Wealth like drifting cloud — here at noon, gone by evening.
nợ đồng lần
Debt that rotates — life's borrowing circle: everyone owes, everyone repays, round and round.
nứa trôi sông
Bamboo adrift downriver — the unmoored, going where the water says.
nứt đố đổ vách
to be loaded; to be filthy rich
nửa người nửa ngợm
Half person, half creature — humanity incompletely installed.
nữ sanh ngoại tộc
Daughters pass to the outer clan — the old patrilineal accounting of a girl's belonging.
nực cười châu chấu đá xe, tưởng rằng chấu ngã ai dè xe nghiêng
Laughable, the grasshopper kicking the cart — yet the grasshopper stood and the cart tipped over — the underdog verse that history kept quoting.
N or M
The answer given to the first question in the Church of England Catechism; and it means that here the person being catechized gives his or her name or names. Lat. nomen vel nomina. The abbreviation for the plural nomina was — as usual — the doubled initial (cp. "LL.D." for Doctor of Laws); and this, when printed (as it was in old Prayer Books) m black-letter and close together, $$. came to be taken for fK.
n. c
"enough said," being the initials of NUF CED. A certain theatrical manager spells, it is said, in this style.
na-na
The vulva.
na-na na-na boo-boo
a childish taunt to annoy or tease someone
nab
To catch, to seize; "NAB the rust," to take offence.—Ancient, fourteenth century. See NAP.
nabob
An Eastern prince, a retired Indian official,—hence a slang term for a capitalist. From Nawaub.
nabs
Self; my NABS, myself; his NABS, himself.—North Country Cant.
nack
To have a nack; to be ready at any thing, to have a turn-for it.
nade
A grenade.
nag
To persistently talk in a scolding manner, after the manner of Mrs. Caudle. NAGGING is supposed to be persistent, persevering, passionless scolding.
Nag's Head Consecration
On the passing of the second Act of Uniformity in Queen Elizabeth's reign (1559), fourteen bishops vacated their sees, and all the other sees, except Llandaff, were at the time vacant.
nah
No.
nail
To catch.
nail
To steal, or capture; "paid on the NAIL," i.e., paid ready money; NAILED, taken up, or caught,—probably in allusion to the practice of NAILING bad money to the counter. We say, "as dead as a door-NAIL;" most possibly because of "apt alliteration." Shakspeare has the expression in Henry IV.—
nail down
to firmly establish or settle something
nail the hammer on the head
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
nailed
Secured, fixed. He offered me a decus, and I nailed him; he offered me a crown, and I struck or fixed him.
naked ape
A human being, emphasizing their primitive or animalistic nature
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