nhịn đói nằm co, hơn ăn no phải làm
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Endure hardship to avoid a worse situation
Literally: endure hunger, lie curled up, better than eat full must work
Examples
Tôi chấp nhận nhịn đói nằm co chứ không đi làm việc đóI'd rather endure hardship than take that job
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 “nhịn đói nằm co, hơn ăn no phải làm” mean?
Endure hardship to avoid a worse situation Literally: endure hunger, lie curled up, better than eat full must work
Is “nhịn đói nằm co, hơn ăn no phải làm” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.