thợ rèn không dao ăn trầu

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In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Meaning · English

The blacksmith without a betel knife — supplying every house but his own.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

cung cấp cho mọi nhà nhưng không phải cho nhà mình

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: the smith lacks a knife for betel

Examples

Thợ rèn không dao ăn trầu, sửa máy cho cả xóm mà máy nhà thì hỏng.He fixes the whole block's machines while his own sits broken — the smith without a betel knife.

Editorial example (VI sweep batch 040, illustrative)

Sources & notes

Discovered via Tục ngữ, cổ ngữ, gia ngôn (Huỳnh Tịnh Của, 1897; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Tục ngữ, cổ ngữ, gia ngôn (Huỳnh Tịnh Của, 1897). Definition is an original editorial synthesis, not copied from the source.

Common questions

What does “thợ rèn không dao ăn trầu” mean?

The blacksmith without a betel knife — supplying every house but his own. Literally: the smith lacks a knife for betel

Is “thợ rèn không dao ăn trầu” formal or informal?

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

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