Chẳng làm thời đói, làm thời mỏi xương hông

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

If you don't work, you'll starve, but if you do, you'll be exhausted

Literally: Not working then hungry, working then hip bone pain

Examples

Anh ấy chẳng làm thời đói, làm thời mỏi xương hông, nên quyết định nghỉ ngơi một thời gian.He didn't work and was hungry, worked and had hip pain, so he decided to rest for a while.

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

Sources & notes

Headword listed in the vdict.com proverb dictionary index (discovery source; headword only — no source content copied). Entered as candidate 2026-08-05; definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-05; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Chẳng làm thời đói, làm thời mỏi xương hông” mean?

If you don't work, you'll starve, but if you do, you'll be exhausted Literally: Not working then hungry, working then hip bone pain

Is “Chẳng làm thời đói, làm thời mỏi xương hông” formal or informal?

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

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