Definition

1. Verb:
   • To have a blank, expressionless, or sullen facial expression, often due to disappointment, boredom, or a lack of understanding. It describes the face becoming elongated or drooping, losing its lively expression.
   • (In the reduplicated form đuồn đuỗn) To have an even more pronounced blank, dull, or sullen expression.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Nghe tin đó, mặt nó đuỗn ra ngay. (Hearing that news, his face immediately fell blank.)
  • Đừng có đuỗn mặt ra như thế, vui lên nào! (Don't pull such a long face, cheer up!)
  • Cậu bé ngồi đuỗn mặt nhìn ra cửa sổ. (The boy sat with a blank expression, looking out the window.)

Advanced Usage

• Mặt đuỗn ra: This is the most common fixed phrase. It means "to wear/have a blank/long face."
  • Sau khi bị mắng, nó chỉ biết mặt đuỗn ra. (After being scolded, he could only stand there with a blank face.)
• Used with the reduplicated form for emphasis: đuồn đuỗn.
  • Cả buổi sáng nó ngồi đuồn đuỗn, chẳng nói chẳng rằng. (He sat all morning with a sullen, expressionless face, not saying a word.)

Variants and Related Words

• Đuồn đuỗn (reduplicated verb): A more emphatic form of đuỗn, indicating a stronger or more prolonged blank/sullen expression.
• Dài mặt (verb phrase): A near-synonymous colloquial phrase meaning "to have a long face," indicating disappointment or sadness.
• Thẫn thờ (adjective): To be dazed, absent-minded, or in a stupor, which can involve a similar facial expression.

Synonyms

• Ngây ra: To become blank, stupefied.
• Thờ ra: To become dazed, expressionless.
• Xịu mặt xuống: To have one's face fall (in disappointment).

Notes on Meaning

• The word đuỗn is primarily used to describe a facial expression and is almost always associated with the face (mặt). It conveys a visual image of the face losing its animation, becoming slack or elongated.
• It carries a nuance of passive reaction to a negative stimulus (bad news, scolding, boredom) rather than an active emotional display like anger or crying.
• The reference to "avoir le nez long" (to have a long nose) in the Vietnamese-French dictionary is an idiomatic equivalent in French, also meaning to look disappointed or crestfallen.

1. Mặt đuỗn ra
2. Wear (have) a blank expression (a blank face)