Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Thứ nhất rào gai, thứ nhì chó bọ

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Something is second best after another thing

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Điều gì đó là tốt thứ hai sau điều khác

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: first thorns, second fleas

Examples

Mẹ nói công việc đó chỉ là thứ nhì rào gai, thứ nhất chó bọ so với công việc trướcMy mom said that job is only second best, after the previous one

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.

Common questions

What does “Thứ nhất rào gai, thứ nhì chó bọ” mean?

Something is second best after another thing Literally: first thorns, second fleas

Is “Thứ nhất rào gai, thứ nhì chó bọ” formal or informal?

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

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