đem voi về giày nhà mả
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Bringing the elephant home to trample the ancestors' graves — importing the very ruin, and showing it the family's soft ground.
Examples
Editorial example (VI sweep batch 040, illustrative)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Tục ngữ, cổ ngữ, gia ngôn (Huỳnh Tịnh Của, 1897; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Tục ngữ, cổ ngữ, gia ngôn (Huỳnh Tịnh Của, 1897). Definition is an original editorial synthesis, not copied from the source.
Common questions
What does “đem voi về giày nhà mả” mean?
Bringing the elephant home to trample the ancestors' graves — importing the very ruin, and showing it the family's soft ground. Literally: bring the elephant back to trample the family tombs
Is “đem voi về giày nhà mả” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.