Tham thì thâm, dầm thì đen
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Excessive desire leads to darkness and misery
Literally: greedy then dark, submerged then black
Examples
Anh ấy tham thì thâm, dầm thì đen vì tham lam quá mứcHe fell into darkness and misery because of his greed
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 2026-08-08; pending editor spot-check.
Advertisement
Ad space — ads help keep Idiomer free. Premium will remove them.
Common questions
What does “Tham thì thâm, dầm thì đen” mean?
Excessive desire leads to darkness and misery Literally: greedy then dark, submerged then black
Is “Tham thì thâm, dầm thì đen” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
Advertisement
Ad space — ads help keep Idiomer free. Premium will remove them.