Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Rách cho thơm, đói cho sạch

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Suffer a small loss to avoid a bigger problem

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Chịu tổn thất nhỏ để tránh vấn đề lớn hơn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: Tear to smell, hungry to clean

Examples

Anh ấy chấp nhận rách cho thơm để bảo vệ danh dựHe accepted a small loss to protect his reputation

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 “Rách cho thơm, đói cho sạch” mean?

Suffer a small loss to avoid a bigger problem Literally: Tear to smell, hungry to clean

Is “Rách cho thơm, đói cho sạch” formal or informal?

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

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