bán kẹo mua đường
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to spend money on something only to get something of lesser value
Literally: sell candy buy sugar
Examples
Anh ấy bán kẹo mua đường khi đổi xe máy mới lấy xe máy cũHe sold candy to buy sugar when he traded his new motorcycle for an old one
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 “bán kẹo mua đường” mean?
to spend money on something only to get something of lesser value Literally: sell candy buy sugar
Is “bán kẹo mua đường” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.