English · Idiom Candidate

broken reed

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A person or thing that is unreliable or provides no support.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Một người hoặc thứ gì đó không đáng tin cậy hoặc không cung cấp hỗ trợ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a reed that is broken

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He proved to be a broken reed when I needed his help.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “broken reed” mean?

A person or thing that is unreliable or provides no support. Literally: a reed that is broken

Is “broken reed” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

👁 Views 0 today 0 past 7 days 0 this month 0 all time