thợ may ăn giẻ, thợ vẽ ăn hồ
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
People live off their profession
Literally: tailor eats rags, painter eats glue
Examples
Anh ấy là thợ may ăn giẻ, thợ vẽ ăn hồHe is a tailor who lives off his trade, a painter who lives off his art
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 “thợ may ăn giẻ, thợ vẽ ăn hồ” mean?
People live off their profession Literally: tailor eats rags, painter eats glue
Is “thợ may ăn giẻ, thợ vẽ ăn hồ” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.