Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Hay khi xay lúa, múa khi tắt đèn

🎙 Say it

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Only work when it benefits oneself

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Chỉ làm việc khi có lợi cho bản thân

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: Work when husking rice, dance when the lights are off

Examples

Anh ấy chỉ làm việc khi có lợi cho mình, hay khi xay lúa, múa khi tắt đènHe only works when it benefits himself, typical of 'work when husking rice, dance when the lights are off'

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Headword listed in the vdict.com proverb dictionary index (discovery source; headword only — no source content copied). Entered as candidate 2026-08-05; definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-06; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Hay khi xay lúa, múa khi tắt đèn” mean?

Only work when it benefits oneself Literally: Work when husking rice, dance when the lights are off

Is “Hay khi xay lúa, múa khi tắt đèn” formal or informal?

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

👁 Views 0 today 1 past 7 days 1 this month 1 all time