bắc nước chờ gạo người
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Wait for others to finish before taking action
Literally: northern water waiting for other's rice
Examples
Anh ấy luôn bắc nước chờ gạo người, không bao giờ dám tiên phong.He always waits for others to finish before taking action, never daring to take the lead.
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 “bắc nước chờ gạo người” mean?
Wait for others to finish before taking action Literally: northern water waiting for other's rice
Is “bắc nước chờ gạo người” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.