đâm đầu đâm đuôi
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To be in a difficult or precarious situation
Literally: to poke head to poke tail
Examples
Anh ấy đâm đầu đâm đuôi vì nợ nầnHe is in a difficult situation because of debt
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 “đâm đầu đâm đuôi” mean?
To be in a difficult or precarious situation Literally: to poke head to poke tail
Is “đâm đầu đâm đuôi” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.