chạy ăn
Definition
- Verb phrase:
- To scramble for a living / to hustle for food: The primary meaning of "chạy ăn" is to strive or struggle urgently to obtain the basic necessities of life, especially food and daily sustenance. It implies constant, often desperate, effort to secure one's livelihood.
Usage Examples
- Verb phrase:
- Gia đình anh ấy phải chạy ăn từng ngày. (His family has to scramble for a living day by day.)
- Sau khi mất việc, ông ấy phải chạy ăn đủ mọi nghề. (After losing his job, he had to hustle for food doing all sorts of work.)
Advanced Usage
- The phrase often carries a connotation of poverty, instability, and living without any financial security or surplus. It describes a state of subsistence living.
Variants and Related Words
- Chạy ăn từng bữa (verb phrase): an intensified form meaning "to live hand to mouth," emphasizing the struggle for each individual meal.
- Họ sống trong cảnh chạy ăn từng bữa. (They live in a hand-to-mouth existence.)
Synonyms
- To eke out a living: To make a living with great difficulty or minimal resources.
- To scramble for subsistence: To strive urgently for the basic means of survival.
- To hustle for a living: To work energetically and persistently to earn money for basic needs.
Related Idioms
- Đầu tắt mặt tối: (lit. head extinguished, face dark) To be extremely busy from morning till night, often related to working hard for a living. This idiom complements the meaning of "chạy ăn."
- Cả năm ông ấy đầu tắt mặt tối chỉ để chạy ăn cho gia đình. (All year he works himself to the bone just to provide for his family.)