Tiếng Việt · Proverb Attested

lấy ngao lường biển

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In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Measuring the sea with a clamshell — ambition uncalibrated to its instrument.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

khát vọng không tương xứng với công cụ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: take a clam to gauge the ocean

Examples

Sức ấy mà đòi làm vậy, lấy ngao lường biển.That capacity, that ambition — a clamshell measuring the sea.

Editorial example (VI sweep batch 040, illustrative)

Sources & notes

Discovered via Tục ngữ, cổ ngữ, gia ngôn (Huỳnh Tịnh Của, 1897; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Tục ngữ, cổ ngữ, gia ngôn (Huỳnh Tịnh Của, 1897). Definition is an original editorial synthesis, not copied from the source.

Common questions

What does “lấy ngao lường biển” mean?

Measuring the sea with a clamshell — ambition uncalibrated to its instrument. Literally: take a clam to gauge the ocean

Is “lấy ngao lường biển” formal or informal?

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

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