thẹn đèn hổ lửa
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
ashamed to show one's face
Literally: shame lamp tiger fire
Examples
Anh ấy thẹn đèn hổ lửa sau khi bị phát hiện nói dốiHe was ashamed to show his face after being caught lying
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 “thẹn đèn hổ lửa” mean?
ashamed to show one's face Literally: shame lamp tiger fire
Is “thẹn đèn hổ lửa” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.