Definition

1. Verb:
   • To flail; to struggle helplessly (especially in water): The primary meaning describes the desperate, frantic, and often repeated movements of a person trying to stay afloat or grasp something for support, typically while drowning or in a state of panic. It conveys a sense of losing control and fighting against a dire situation.
   • To be in a desperate or precarious situation (figurative): Used metaphorically to describe a state of struggling without support or a secure foothold, often in financial, emotional, or social contexts.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Nạn nhân chới với dưới dòng nước xiết. (The victim was flailing in the strong current.)
  • Đứa trẻ chới với vài giây rồi chìm xuống. (The child struggled helplessly for a few seconds before sinking.)
  • Công ty đang chới với trong khủng hoảng tài chính. (The company is floundering in a financial crisis.)

Advanced Usage

• The word is often used to depict a final, desperate effort that is ultimately futile, emphasizing vulnerability and the imminent threat of failure or drowning.
• It can describe both physical struggle in a liquid or unstable medium and metaphorical struggle in difficult circumstances.

Variants and Related Words

• Vùng vẫy (v): To thrash about; to struggle. This is a close synonym but can imply more forceful, energetic, and sometimes less desperate movement than "chới với."
  • Con cá vùng vẫy trên thuyền. (The fish thrashed about on the boat.)

Synonyms

• Flail: To wave or swing wildly.
• Struggle helplessly: To make a strenuous effort without success.
• Flounder: To struggle clumsily or with difficulty.

Related Idioms

• Chới với giữa dòng đời: To flounder in the current of life. This idiom uses the word to describe feeling lost, unsupported, or overwhelmed by life's challenges.
  • Sau biến cố, anh ấy cảm thấy chới với giữa dòng đời. (After the incident, he felt like he was floundering in the current of life.)

verb

1. To reach up one's hands repeatedly
   • một người rơi xuống nước đang chới với giữa dòng sông
     a person who had fallen into the water was reaching up his hand repeatedly in the middle of the stream