chọc gậy xuống nước
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To test the depth of a situation or someone's feelings
Literally: poke stick into water
Examples
Anh ấy chọc gậy xuống nước để xem cô ấy có quan tâm khôngHe poked a stick into the water to see if she was interested
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 “chọc gậy xuống nước” mean?
To test the depth of a situation or someone's feelings Literally: poke stick into water
Is “chọc gậy xuống nước” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.