Mồng ba ăn rốn, mồng bốn ngồi không

🎙 Say it

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Work hard at first but soon become idle

Literally: third day eat navel, fourth day sit idle

Examples

Anh ấy làm việc chăm chỉ vào ngày đầu, nhưng đến ngày thứ tư thì bắt đầu mồng ba ăn rốn, mồng bốn ngồi không.He worked hard on the first day, but by the fourth day, he started to work hard at first but soon become idle

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 2026-08-07; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Mồng ba ăn rốn, mồng bốn ngồi không” mean?

Work hard at first but soon become idle Literally: third day eat navel, fourth day sit idle

Is “Mồng ba ăn rốn, mồng bốn ngồi không” formal or informal?

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

👁 Views 0 today 0 past 7 days 0 this month 0 all time