Tiếng Việt · Idiom Attested

dở khóc dở cười

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In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Half crying, half laughing — a predicament neither face fits.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

mặt nào cũng không phù hợp

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: partly weep, partly laugh

Examples

Tình huống dở khóc dở cười.A situation you can neither cry nor laugh at.

Editorial example (VI sweep batch 040, illustrative)

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 is an original editorial synthesis, not copied from the source.

Common questions

What does “dở khóc dở cười” mean?

Half crying, half laughing — a predicament neither face fits. Literally: partly weep, partly laugh

Is “dở khóc dở cười” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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