Tiếng Việt · Idiom Attested

xuống thác lên ghềnh

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

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Down the falls, up the rapids — a course of nothing but hard water.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Đường đời nhiều khó khăn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: descend the falls, ascend the rapids

Examples

Đời chị xuống thác lên ghềnh mãi.Her life has been all falls and rapids.

Editorial example (VI sweep batch 040, illustrative)

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 is an original editorial synthesis, not copied from the source.

Common questions

What does “xuống thác lên ghềnh” mean?

Down the falls, up the rapids — a course of nothing but hard water. Literally: descend the falls, ascend the rapids

Is “xuống thác lên ghềnh” formal or informal?

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

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