Definition

1. Verb:
   • To serve (food): To place cooked food, especially rice, from a serving dish into an individual's bowl or plate.
   • To sew on: To attach something, like a button or decoration, to fabric by sewing.
   • To fish with a trap: To catch fish using a specific type of conical or funnel-shaped bamboo trap (called an "đó" or "đơm").

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Mẹ đơm cơm cho cả nhà. (Mother serves rice for the whole family.)
  • Cô ấy đơm lại chiếc cúc bị rơi. (She sewed the fallen button back on.)
  • Ngư dân đi đơm cá trên sông. (The fisherman went to trap fish on the river.)

Advanced Usage

• "đơm đó": This phrase specifically refers to the act of setting or using a bamboo fish trap.

  • Ông lão sống bằng nghề đơm đó. (The old man makes a living by fishing with traps.)

• "đơm đặt": To fabricate, to invent (a story, accusation). This is a figurative, negative usage.

  • Anh ta bịa chuyện, đơm đặt những điều không đúng. (He made up stories, fabricating untrue things.)

Variants and Related Words

• Đơm hoa kết trái (idiomatic verb phrase): To bear fruit, to come to fruition (often used for plans, efforts, or love).
  • Mong rằng dự án sẽ sớm đơm hoa kết trái. (I hope the project will soon bear fruit.)

Synonyms

• To serve: to dish out, to ladle.
• To sew on: to attach, to stitch on.
• To trap: to catch, to ensnare (for fish).

Related Idioms

• Đơm đó ngọn tre: Literally "to set a fish trap on a treetop." It means to attempt the impossible or to engage in a futile effort.
  • Làm việc đó chẳng khác nào đơm đó ngọn tre. (Doing that is like trying to set a fish trap in a treetop.)

1. Fish with a bamboo fish trap
   • Đơm đó ngọn tre
     To seek a hare in a hen's nest
2. Bamboo fish trap (placed against a current)
   • Đi đặt mấy cái đơm
     To go and lay someone bamboo fish trap (in the river)
3. Serve out
   • Đơm cơm vào bát
     To serve out rice into bowls (from the pot)
4. Sew on (buttons...)
   • Đơm khuy vào áo
     To sew buttons on a jacket