Tiếng Việt · Idiom Attested

ngậm đắng nuốt cay

🎙 Say it

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

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Holding the bitter, swallowing the acrid — grievance eaten daily and in silence.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Nước mắt đắng cay phải nuốt

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: hold bitterness, swallow pungency

Examples

Bao năm ngậm đắng nuốt cay.Years of holding the bitter and swallowing the sharp.

Editorial example (VI sweep batch 040, illustrative)

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 is an original editorial synthesis, not copied from the source.

Common questions

What does “ngậm đắng nuốt cay” mean?

Holding the bitter, swallowing the acrid — grievance eaten daily and in silence. Literally: hold bitterness, swallow pungency

Is “ngậm đắng nuốt cay” 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 1 all time