rẻ tiền mặt, mắt tiền chịu
Cheap for cash, dear on credit — the two prices every stall really keeps.
Browse all entries 1871
All languages English Tiếng Việt
rết nhiều chân
A centipede has many legs — the well-connected never lack support.
rễ má dây mơ
Tuber roots and creeper vines — kinship's tangle, connection by every underground runner.
rối canh hẹ
Tangled as chive soup — a snarl no chopstick sorts out.
rồng bay phụng múa
lively and vigorous
rồng nằm bể cạn phơi râu, mấy lời anh nói giấu đầu hở đuôi
A dragon beached in a dry pool, sunning its whiskers — your story hides its head and shows its tail — grandeur stranded, and a lie showing its seams.
rồng vàng tắm nước ao tù, người khôn ở với người ngu bực mình
A golden dragon bathing in a stagnant pond — the able person stuck among fools, and chafing.
rồng đến nhà tôm
someone of high status has paid a visit to someone of low status
rổ rá cạp lại
A mended basket lashed to a mended sieve — two previously-married people patching a life together.
rỗng như đít Bụt
completely empty
rộng chân rộng cẳng
Legs stretched wide and free — utterly unconstrained, with room to move at last.
rợn gió e sương
Shivering at wind, flinching from dew — too timid to venture a hand's-breadth.
rụt cổ rùa
Tortoise-necked — shrinking back from every approach.
rủ nhau xuống biển bắt cua Bắt cua cua kẹp, bắt rùa rùa bơi
Off to the sea for crabs — grab the crab, it pinches; grab the turtle, it swims — the comedy of inept effort.
rủ nhau đi cấy đi cày, bây giờ khó nhọc, có ngày phong lưu. Trên đồng cạn, dưới đồng sâu, chồng cày vợ cấy, con trâu đi bừa
Off together to transplant and plow — hardship now, ease someday: shallow field above, deep field below, husband plowing, wife transplanting, buffalo harrowing — the family economy in one scene.
rừng có mạch, vách có tai, người trong chưa tỏ, người ngoài đã hay
The forest has veins and walls have ears — before those inside are clear, those outside already know.
rừng nhu biển thánh khôn dò, bé mà chẳng học, lớn mò sao ra
The forest of letters, the ocean of sages — fathomless; skip the learning young and grope for it old.
rừng vàng biển bạc
golden forests and silver seas
rửa mặt bằng tăm
Washing your face with a toothpick — hygiene in name only.
'rales
The police.
r. m. d
Cash down, immediate payment. The initial letters of READY MONEY DOWN. Another version of this is P. Y. C. (pay your cash), often seen in the market quotations,—as, "Meat fetched 6s. 4d. a stone, P. Y. C., and 6s. 6d. for the account."
rabbit
A Welch rabbit; bread and cheese toasted, i.e. a Welch rare bit. Rabbits were also a sort of wooden canns to drink out of, now out of use.
rabbit
When a person gets the worst of a bargain, he is said "to have bought the RABBIT." From an old story about a man selling a cat to a foreigner for a rabbit.
rabbit and pork
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
rabbit suckers
Young spendthrifts taking up goods on trust at great prices.
rabble rouser
A person who stirs up trouble or provokes unrest
raccoon eyes
dark circles or smudges under the eyes
race of truth
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
race out of the traps
Start something quickly and energetically
race queen
a female promotional model for racing events
race riot
a violent disturbance involving a large group of people, often due to racial tensions
Race Suicide
The extinction of a race through the undue use of contraceptives by so large a
rack and pinion
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
rack and pinion railway
Railway designed for ascending and descending mountains. It has a third rail cut with teeth over which rides a mechanism which, in the event of an accident, engages the teeth and so prevents the train from falling to the bottom.
rack and ruin
To be completely destroyed or ruined
rack and ruin
Utter destitution. Here "rack" is a variety of -wrack and -wreck.
rack rent
Rent strained to the utmost value. To lie at rack and manger; to be in great disorder.
rack rent
The actual value or rent of a tenement, and not that modified form on which the rates and taxes are usually levied; an ex- orbitant rent, one which is "racked" or stretched.
rack up
accumulate or achieve something, especially points or awards
rackaback
A gormagon. See GORMAGON.
racket
A dodge, manœuvre, exhibition; a disturbance.
racks
The bones of a dead horse. Term used by horse-slaughterers.
raclan
A married woman. Originally Gipsy, but now a term with English tramps.
racy of the soil
Characteristic of the in- habitants, especially the dwellers in the country, workers on the land.
Radcliffe Library
A library at Oxford, founded with a bequest of £40,000 left for the purpose by Dr. John Radcliffe (1650-1714), and origin- ally intended for a medical library. Dr. Rad- cliffe was a ^ prominent London physician, famous for his candour. When summoned to Queen Anne he told her that there was nothing the matter with her but "vapours," and he refused to attend her on her deathbed.
radness
excellence
rafe
Or RALPH, a pawnbroker’s duplicate.—Norwich.
raff
A dirty, dissipated fellow; RAFFISH, looking like a RAFF.
raffs
An appellation given by the gownsmen of the university of Oxford to the inhabitants of that place.
rafter snapper
A large or intense storm
rag
Bank notes. Money in general. The cove has no rag; the fellow has no money.
rag
To divide or share; "let’s RAG IT," or "go RAGS," i.e., share it equally between us.—Norwich.
rag bagger
A person who collects rags and other discarded materials
rag fair
An inspection of the linen and necessaries of a company of soldiers, commonly made by their officers on Mondays or Saturdays.
rag the puck
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
rag water
Gin, or any other common dram: these liquors seldom failing to reduce those that drink them to rags.
ragamuffin
A ragged fellow, one all in tatters, a
ragamuffin
An ill-clad vagabond, a tatterdemalion.
Ragged Robin
A wild flower (Lychnis floscu- culi). The word is used by Tennyson for a pretty damsel in ragged clothes.
Ragman Roll
The set of documents recording the names of the Scottish barons who paid homage to Edward I on his progress through Scotland in 1291, now in the Public Record