Definition

1. Verb (idiomatic):
   • To keep body and soul together: To manage to survive with the bare minimum of food, money, or resources; to subsist at a very basic level, often in difficult circumstances.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Gia đình nghèo phải ăn rau ăn cháo để cầm hơi. (The poor family had to keep body and soul together just on vegetables and soup.)
  • Công việc tạm thời đó chỉ giúp anh ấy cầm hơi qua ngày. (That temporary job only helps him scrape by day by day.)

Advanced Usage

• The phrase is almost exclusively used to describe a precarious state of subsistence. It emphasizes a struggle for mere survival rather than living comfortably.

Variants and Related Words

• Sống tạm (v): to live temporarily or make do.
• Sống qua ngày (v): to live from hand to mouth, to get through the day.

Synonyms

• To subsist: To maintain or support oneself at a minimal level.
• To scrape by: To manage to live with barely enough money or food.
• To eke out an existence: To make a living with great difficulty.

Related Idioms

• Chạy ăn từng bữa: To live hand to mouth, focusing on finding food for each single meal.
  • Sau thảm họa, họ phải chạy ăn từng bữa. (After the disaster, they had to live hand to mouth.)

1. To keep body and soul together
   • ăn rau ăn cháo để cầm hơi
     to keep body and soul together just on vegetables and soup