làm kiếp trâu kéo cầy giả nợ

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To work extremely hard to pay off debts

Literally: to be an ox pulling a plow pretending to be in debt

Examples

Anh ấy làm kiếp trâu kéo cầy giả nợ để lo cho gia đìnhHe works extremely hard to pay off debts to support his family

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

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 drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “làm kiếp trâu kéo cầy giả nợ” mean?

To work extremely hard to pay off debts Literally: to be an ox pulling a plow pretending to be in debt

Is “làm kiếp trâu kéo cầy giả nợ” formal or informal?

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