ở bể vào ngòi
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Being in a difficult or precarious situation
Literally: in the sea, into the ditch
Examples
Anh ấy vừa mất việc, vừa bị ốm, thật là ở bể vào ngòi.He just lost his job and got sick, really being in a difficult situation.
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 “ở bể vào ngòi” mean?
Being in a difficult or precarious situation Literally: in the sea, into the ditch
Is “ở bể vào ngòi” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.