Definition

1. Verb:
   • To practise long line fishing: The literal meaning refers to the fishing method of using a long, stationary line with multiple hooks, often left in the water for an extended period.
   • To drag out indefinitely / to procrastinate: The primary figurative meaning describes prolonging a task or activity unnecessarily, working slowly and without urgency, causing significant delay.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Ngư dân ra khơi để câu dầm. (The fishermen went out to sea to practise long line fishing.)
  • Đừng có câu dầm việc đó nữa, hãy làm cho xong đi! (Stop dragging that job out indefinitely, just finish it!)
  • Công việc bị chậm trễ vì anh ta cứ câu dầm. (The work was delayed because he kept procrastinating.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is almost exclusively used in its figurative sense in modern Vietnamese to criticize inefficient, dilatory work habits. The literal fishing context is now less common.

Variants and Related Words

• Làm việc câu dầm (verb phrase): to work in a dragging, procrastinating manner.
  • Kiểu làm việc câu dầm của anh ấy thật khó chịu. (His procrastinating work style is really annoying.)

Synonyms

• To procrastinate: To delay or postpone action.
• To dawdle: To waste time; to be slow.
• To drag one's feet: To act with deliberate slowness.

Related Idioms

• Câu giờ: To stall for time (often in a conversation or meeting).
  • Diễn giả câu giờ bằng những câu hỏi không liên quan. (The speaker stalled for time with irrelevant questions.)
• While not a direct idiom, "câu dầm" itself functions idiomatically when used figuratively to describe protracted, inefficient action.

1. To practise long line fishing
2. To drag out indefinitely
   • làm việc câu dầm
     to drag indefinitely out a piece of job