Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Hoài hơi mà đấm bị bông

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To exert great effort but achieve little

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Cố gắng nhiều nhưng đạt được ít

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: panting to punch cotton

Examples

Anh ấy hoài hơi mà đấm bị bông khi cố gắng học tiếng AnhHe exerted great effort but achieved little when trying to learn English

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 “Hoài hơi mà đấm bị bông” mean?

To exert great effort but achieve little Literally: panting to punch cotton

Is “Hoài hơi mà đấm bị bông” formal or informal?

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

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