ăn xưa chừa sau
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Learn from past experiences to avoid similar mistakes
Literally: eat before and avoid later
Examples
Anh ấy ăn xưa chừa sau, nên không bao giờ đi qua cây cầu đó nữa.He learned from his past experience, so he never walked across that bridge again.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “ăn xưa chừa sau” mean?
Learn from past experiences to avoid similar mistakes Literally: eat before and avoid later
Is “ăn xưa chừa sau” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.