Khoẻ thì nằm dọc, nhọc thì nằm ngang

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

When things are going well, one can be careless, but when faced with difficulties, one must be cautious

Literally: Healthy then lie horizontally, tired then lie vertically

Examples

Anh ấy khoẻ thì nằm dọc, nhọc thì nằm ngang trong công việc mớiHe can be careless when things are going well, but when faced with difficulties, he must be cautious in his new job

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 “Khoẻ thì nằm dọc, nhọc thì nằm ngang” mean?

When things are going well, one can be careless, but when faced with difficulties, one must be cautious Literally: Healthy then lie horizontally, tired then lie vertically

Is “Khoẻ thì nằm dọc, nhọc thì nằm ngang” formal or informal?

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

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