xé mắm không được mút tay
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Cannot enjoy the benefits without suffering the drawbacks
Literally: tear fish sauce but not suck finger
Examples
Anh ấy muốn xé mắm không được mút tay, nhưng cuộc sống không như vậyHe wants to enjoy the benefits without suffering the drawbacks, but life is not like that
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 “xé mắm không được mút tay” mean?
Cannot enjoy the benefits without suffering the drawbacks Literally: tear fish sauce but not suck finger
Is “xé mắm không được mút tay” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.