Lạc đường nắm đuôi chó, lạc ngõ nắm đuôi trâu

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

When in trouble, cling to whatever help is available

Literally: Lost in the street, grab the dog's tail; lost in the alley, grab the buffalo's tail

Examples

Khi bị lạc trong rừng, anh phải lạc đường nắm đuôi chó để tìm đường về.When he got lost in the forest, he had to cling to whatever help was available to find his way back.

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 “Lạc đường nắm đuôi chó, lạc ngõ nắm đuôi trâu” mean?

When in trouble, cling to whatever help is available Literally: Lost in the street, grab the dog's tail; lost in the alley, grab the buffalo's tail

Is “Lạc đường nắm đuôi chó, lạc ngõ nắm đuôi trâu” formal or informal?

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

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