Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Nước ngập tới mồm còn ôm đủ thứ

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To cling to everything when in a desperate situation

Literally: Water floods up to the mouth but still hug all kinds of things

Examples

Trong hoàn cảnh khó khăn, anh ấy vẫn cố gắng giữ tất cả tài sản của mình, nước ngập tới mồm còn ôm đủ thứ.In difficult circumstances, he still tried to keep all his assets, water floods up to the mouth but still hug all kinds of things.

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 “Nước ngập tới mồm còn ôm đủ thứ” mean?

To cling to everything when in a desperate situation Literally: Water floods up to the mouth but still hug all kinds of things

Is “Nước ngập tới mồm còn ôm đủ thứ” formal or informal?

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

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