Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Stingy, miserly, clinging tightly: Describes a person who is excessively unwilling to spend money or share their possessions. It implies a tight-fisted, grasping attitude.
   • Stubbornly adherent, rigidly clinging: Describes a person who obstinately holds on to their own ideas, methods, or habits, refusing to change or consider alternatives.

2. Noun (Botany):

   • Job's tears: Refers to the seeds of a tall tropical grass (Coix lacryma-jobi), which are hard, tear-shaped, and used as beads or as a grain.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Của mình thì giữ bo bo, của người thì thả cho bò nó ăn. (He clings tightly to his own property but is wasteful with others'.)
  • Đừng quá bo bo theo những công thức cũ. (Don't be a stick-in-the-mud follower of ancient formulas.)
• Noun:
  • Hạt bo bo thường được xâu thành chuỗi hạt. (Job's tears are often strung into bead necklaces.)

Advanced Usage

• The adjectival use often carries a strong negative connotation of being unreasonably possessive or inflexible. It can describe both material greed and intellectual stubbornness.
• The intensity can be increased with reduplication: "bo bo bỏm bỏm" means to guard something very jealously or with great obstinacy.

Variants and Related Words

• Bo bo giữ (verb phrase): to guard jealously, to cling stubbornly to.
  • Ông ấy bo bo giữ ý kiến của mình. (He stubbornly clings to his own opinion.)

Synonyms

• Adjective: Stingy, miserly, tight-fisted, grasping, obstinate, rigid, inflexible.
• Noun: Job's tears.

Related Idioms

• The phrase "Của mình thì giữ bo bo, của người thì thả cho bò nó ăn" is a common proverb criticizing hypocrisy and selfishness. It translates to being close-fisted with one's own things but recklessly wasteful with what belongs to others.

noun

1. Job's tears

adj

1. Close, griping
   • Của mình thì giữ bo bo Của người thì thả cho bò nó ăn
     Close with one's own property, Wasteful with others'
2. Stick-in-the-mud
   • đừng quá bo bo theo những công thức cũ
     don't be a stick-in-the-mud follower of ancient formulas; don't be a stickler for ancient formulas