xoen-xoét như mép thợ-ngòi
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to be extremely poor
Literally: as thin as a blacksmith's lip
Examples
Gia đình họ xoen-xoét như mép thợ-ngòi sau khi mất nhà vì bão.Their family was extremely poor after losing their house in the storm.
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 “xoen-xoét như mép thợ-ngòi” mean?
to be extremely poor Literally: as thin as a blacksmith's lip
Is “xoen-xoét như mép thợ-ngòi” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.