Definition

1. Verb:
   • To engage in farming / to do farm work: The term "cấy cày" refers to the fundamental agricultural activities of transplanting rice seedlings ("cấy") and plowing the field ("cày"). It represents the core, labor-intensive work of rice cultivation.
   • To farm / to cultivate the land: It broadly means to work the land for crop production, emphasizing the cycle of tasks in traditional agriculture.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Ông bà tôi cả đời gắn bó với ruộng đồng cấy cày. (My grandparents were attached to the fields and farm work all their lives.)
  • Công việc cấy cày vất vả nhưng cho họ lương thực. (The work of farming is hard but provides them with food.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is often used in a figurative or poetic sense to represent the entirety of agricultural life, hardship, and tradition.
  • Bao đời cha truyền con nối nghề cấy cày. (For generations, fathers have passed down the farming occupation to their sons.)

Variants and Related Words

• Cày cấy (v): This is a direct variant with the same meaning and usage as "cấy cày". The order of the words is interchangeable.
  • Người nông dân miệt mài với công việc cày cấy. (The farmer is diligent with the work of plowing and transplanting.)

Synonyms

• To farm: to cultivate land and raise crops.
• To till the land: to prepare and work the soil for cultivation.
• To engage in agriculture: to practice farming.

Related Idioms and Expressions

• Một nắng hai sương cấy cày: (Literally: "One sun, two dews, farming") An idiom describing the hardship and diligence of farmers who work from early morning (dew) until late under the sun.
  • Cuộc sống một nắng hai sương cấy cày đã rèn giũa ý chí của họ. (A life of toiling in the fields has tempered their will.)