Definition

1. Noun:
   • Sand crab: A small species of crab, often found on beaches, known for rolling sand into small balls.
   • A symbol of futile labor: Represents endless, exhausting work that yields no meaningful result, derived from a famous Vietnamese folk image and proverb.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Những con dã tràng nhỏ bé đang vê cát trên bãi biển. (The tiny sand crabs are rolling sand on the beach.)
  • Công việc này chẳng khác nào công dã tràng xe cát. (This work is no different from the sand crab's labor of rolling sand.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is almost exclusively used in the context of the idiom "công dã tràng" or the poetic phrase "dã tràng xe cát", which mean "futile labor" or "Sisyphean task".
  • Anh ấy đang cố gắng thay đổi mọi người, nhưng đó chỉ là công dã tràng mà thôi. (He is trying to change everyone, but it is merely futile labor.)

Variants and Related Words

• Công dã tràng (n): Futile labor, wasted effort, a Sisyphean task.
  • Dự án đó cuối cùng bị hủy bỏ, thật là công dã tràng. (That project was finally canceled, it was truly wasted effort.)

Synonyms

• Futile effort: Action that is incapable of producing any useful result.
• Labor lost: Work that brings no gain or profit.
• Sisyphean task: An endless, fruitless task (from Greek myth).

Related Idioms

• Dã tràng xe cát biển Đông: The sand crab rolls sand in the Eastern Sea. This is the full poetic line from the proverb, encapsulating the concept of pointless, repetitive toil against an immense force (the sea).
  • Ước mơ của hắn như dã tràng xe cát biển Đông. (His dream is like the sand crab rolling sand in the Eastern Sea.)

noun

1. sandcrab
   • công dã tràng
     labour lost