Definition

1. Adjective/Adverbial Phrase:
   • To death, to the point of exhaustion, extremely hard (to the point of being detrimental): Used to describe an action, especially work or labor, performed with such extreme intensity, difficulty, or for so long that it is harmful to one's health or well-being. It implies a state of being utterly worn out or working oneself into the ground.

Usage Examples

• Adjective/Adverbial Phrase:
  • Anh ấy làm việc chết xác để nuôi gia đình. (He works himself to death to support his family.)
  • Công việc đồng áng ngày xưa vất vả chết xác. (Farming work in the old days was backbreakingly hard to the point of exhaustion.)
  • Chạy bộ chết xác mà vẫn không giảm được cân. (Running extremely hard but still not losing any weight.)

Advanced Usage

• The phrase is often used in a hyperbolic or emphatic way to stress the extreme difficulty or toll of an activity, not necessarily literal death. It carries a strong connotation of unfairness or fruitless struggle when the immense effort does not yield a corresponding result.
  • Làm chết xác cả tháng, lương vẫn chỉ đủ sống qua ngày. (Working to the bone all month, the salary is still only enough to scrape by.)

Variants and Related Words

• Chết (verb): To die.
• Kiệt sức (adjective): Exhausted, drained of strength. (A more standard, less colloquial synonym for the resulting state.)
• Làm lưng gãy (idiomatic phrase): To work until one's back breaks. (A similar idiom emphasizing hard physical labor.)

Synonyms

• Cực nhọc (adjective): Arduous, toilsome.
• Vất vả (adjective): Hard, difficult, laborious.
• Tới bến (slang, adverbial phrase): To the extreme, intensely. (Colloquial, can be used in similar contexts but is broader and not exclusively negative.)

Related Idioms

• Đầu tắt mặt tối: Literally "head extinguished, face dark"; means being constantly busy from dawn till dusk, overwhelmed with work.
  • Công việc kinh doanh khiến anh ấy đầu tắt mặt tối. (The business keeps him swamped from morning till night.)
• Bán mặt cho đất, bán lưng cho trời: An idiom describing the life of a farmer, selling their face to the earth and their back to the sky, implying extremely hard and exposed manual labor.

1. (nói về mức độ làm việc) To death
   • làm việc chết xác mà vẫn không đủ ăn
     to work oneself to death without earning enough to eat