Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Piercing, excruciating, agonizing: Describes an extremely intense and sharp pain, as if being cut in the intestines. It conveys a sense of severe, gut-wrenching suffering.
   • Biting, severe, intense: Describes an extreme and penetrating cold that feels as if it cuts to the core.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Cô ấy cảm thấy đau cắt ruột sau ca phẫu thuật. (She felt excruciating pain after the surgery.)
  • Trời đông, cơn gió bấc mang theo cái rét cắt ruột. (In winter, the north wind brings a biting cold.)
  • Nghe tin dữ, nỗi đau cắt ruột khiến anh ta gục ngã. (Upon hearing the bad news, the agonizing pain made him collapse.)

Advanced Usage

• "Đau cắt ruột": This is the most common fixed collocation, meaning "excruciating pain" or "piercing pain." It is often used to describe both physical and emotional pain.
  • Nỗi đau cắt ruột của người mẹ mất con không gì có thể diễn tả nổi. (The excruciating pain of a mother losing her child is indescribable.)
• "Rét cắt ruột": A fixed collocation describing an intense, penetrating cold.
  • Những người vô gia cư phải chịu đựng cái rét cắt ruột trong đêm đông. (The homeless had to endure the biting cold on winter nights.)

Variants and Related Words

• Cắt cổ (adj): Literally "cut-throat." Used figuratively to describe exorbitantly high prices (e.g., - cut-throat prices). While both and use "cắt" for intensity, is not typically used for pain or cold.
• Buốt (adj): Aching, piercing (often for cold or a dull pain). can describe cold () or pain (), but is generally less intense than .
• Quặn (v): To cramp, to writhe (in pain). Often used for abdominal pain ( - cramping pain). It describes a specific type of spasmodic pain, whereas is more about the sharp, cutting intensity.

Synonyms

• Đau đớn tột cùng / Đau đớn dữ dội: Extreme / severe pain.
• Buốt giá / Rét thấu xương: Biting cold / bone-chilling cold.
• Xé lòng: Heart-wrenching, heart-rending (primarily for emotional pain).

Related Phrases (Phrasal Verbs)

(This section is less applicable as 'cắt ruột' is primarily used in fixed adjectival phrases and is not a verb that forms phrasal verbs.)

Related Idioms

• Đau như cắt: Hurts as if being cut. A simile expressing sharp, sudden pain, similar in imagery to but shorter.
  • Vết thương làm anh ta đau như cắt. (The wound made him hurt as if being cut.)
• Xót xa tận ruột gan: To feel pained to the very core of one's being. Used for deep emotional sorrow or regret.
  • Nhìn cảnh đó, bà cụ xót xa tận ruột gan. (Seeing that scene, the old woman felt pained to her very core.)

1. (Đau cắt ruột)A piercing pain
   • Rét cắt ruột
     Biting cold