Definition

1. Verb phrase:
   • To live from hand to mouth: To live with very little money, spending all earnings on immediate basic needs with no ability to save for the future. It describes a precarious, day-to-day existence.

Usage Examples

• Verb phrase:
  • Gia đình anh ấy phải ăn đong sau trận lũ. (His family had to live from hand to mouth after the flood.)
  • Công việc bấp bênh khiến họ ăn đong suốt mười năm. (The unstable job forced them to live from hand to mouth for ten years.)

Advanced Usage

• The phrase often implies a state of poverty and insecurity that is chronic or long-term, not just a temporary difficulty.
• It can be used to describe an individual, a family, or even a small business surviving with no financial buffer.

Variants and Related Words

• Sống tạm bợ (verb phrase): to live in a makeshift or precarious manner, often overlapping with the economic insecurity of "ăn đong."
• Kiếm ăn qua ngày (verb phrase): to earn just enough to get through the day, closely related in meaning.

Synonyms

• To live hand-to-mouth: The direct equivalent.
• To eke out a living: To make a living with great difficulty.
• To scrape by: To manage to live with barely enough money.

Related Idioms

• Đầu tắt mặt tối: To work extremely hard from dawn till dusk, often for a meager living that results in an "ăn đong" lifestyle.
• Lần hồi qua ngày: To get by day by day, similar in describing a precarious, subsistence-level existence.

1. To live from hand to mouth