buốt ruột
Definition
- Adjective:
- Feeling a sharp, painful regret or remorse: Describes a deep, intense feeling of regret, often accompanied by emotional pain, as if one's intestines are being pierced. This is a visceral, colloquial expression.
- Feeling sharp pity or sympathy: Can describe a feeling of acute, painful sympathy or compassion for someone else's suffering.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Anh ấy buốt ruột khi nhìn thấy đứa con hư hỏng. (He felt a sharp pang of regret/pain when he saw his wayward child.)
- Nghe tin cô ấy ốm nặng, tôi thấy buốt ruột. (Hearing she was seriously ill, I felt a painful stab of sympathy.)
- Cất công xây nhà mà bị hỏng, ông chủ buốt ruột lắm. (After putting effort into building a house only for it to be defective, the owner felt intense bitterness/regret.)
Advanced Usage
- Often used to emphasize the physical sensation of emotional pain, making the regret feel very real and acute.
- Commonly appears in contexts of financial loss, wasted effort, disappointment in loved ones, or witnessing others' misfortune.
Variants and Related Words
- Buốt (adj/verb): to be sharp, piercing, or cold (e.g., - piercing cold). This is the root word conveying the sensation of sharpness.
- Đau lòng (adj): to be heartbroken, distressed. A less visceral, more common synonym for emotional pain.
- Tiếc nuối (verb/noun): to regret, to feel regret. A more standard term for regret, without the intense physical metaphor.
Synonyms
- Ân hận: to repent, to feel remorse (often with a moral dimension).
- Xót xa: to feel sorrow, pity, or distress (emphasizes sadness and compassion).
- Cay đắng: bitter, embittered (describes the lingering feeling after a painful event).
Related Idioms and Phrases
- Buốt đến tận xương tủy: A more intense variant meaning "a pain that pierces to the very bone marrow," used for extreme emotional or physical suffering.
- The expression is inherently idiomatic, as it uses a physical organ ( - intestines) to describe an emotional state.