Definition

Adjective: 1. Limp, flabby, sallow (of skin or complexion): Describes a face or skin that appears pale, yellowish, unhealthy, and lacking firmness, often due to prolonged illness, fatigue, or poor health. It conveys a sense of sickly weakness and loss of vitality in one's appearance.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Sau trận ốm dài, mặt anh ấy trông bủng. (After a long illness, his face looks sallow and flabby.)
  • Làm việc quá sức khiến nước da cô ấy xanh bủng. (Overwork has caused her complexion to become pale and sallow.)
  • Đứa trẻ sốt rét có làn da bủng và thiếu sức sống. (The child with malaria has flabby, sallow skin and lacks vitality.)

Advanced Usage Notes

• "bủng" is almost exclusively used to describe an unhealthy human complexion, particularly the face. It is not used for objects.
• It strongly implies the cause is internal (sickness, exhaustion, malnutrition) rather than external (like fear or cold).
• The word often carries a slightly stronger and more vivid connotation of physical deterioration than simple "pale" ().

Variants and Related Words

• bung bủng (reduplicative form, adjective): A softened, sometimes more colloquial version of bủng, describing a slightly puffy, pale, or unhealthy look.
  • Mặt nó bung bủng như người thiếu ngủ. (His face looks somewhat puffy and pale like someone who lacks sleep.)

Synonyms

• xanh xao (adj): Pale, pallid (often from fear or illness).
• tái mét (adj): Deathly pale, ashen.
• nhợt nhạt (adj): Pallid, wan, lacking color.
• xịu xuống (verb phrase for face): To sag, to droop (describing the shape, often accompanying ).

Common Collocations and Phrases

• mặt bủng da chì: A fixed idiom meaning "a sallow face and leaden skin," vividly describing an extremely unhealthy, pallid, and gloomy complexion.
• da bủng / nước da bủng: bủng skin / a bủng complexion.
• trông bủng: to look sallow and flabby.

adj

1. Limp, flabby, sallow
   • mặt bủng da chì
     a sallow face and a leaden skin
   • nước da xanh bủng
     a pale sallow complexion