đầu rồng đuôi tôm
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Something that starts well but ends poorly
Literally: dragon head, shrimp tail
Examples
Dự án đó đầu rồng đuôi tôm, bắt đầu rất hứa hẹn nhưng kết thúc thất bạiThat project started well but ended in failure
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 “đầu rồng đuôi tôm” mean?
Something that starts well but ends poorly Literally: dragon head, shrimp tail
Is “đầu rồng đuôi tôm” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.