cua máy cáy đào
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
One person's loss is another's gain
Literally: crab loses, fish gains
Examples
Anh ấy mất việc nhưng anh tôi lại được thuê vào vị trí đó, thật là cua máy cáy đào.He lost his job, but my brother was hired for that position, it's really a case of cua máy cáy đào.
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 “cua máy cáy đào” mean?
One person's loss is another's gain Literally: crab loses, fish gains
Is “cua máy cáy đào” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.