Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Extremely thin, emaciated: Describes a person or animal who is exceptionally thin, often to the point where bones are prominent, suggesting frailty or poor health.
   • Gaunt, skeletal: Emphasizes a thinness that is stark and visually striking, like a skeleton.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Sau trận ốm nặng, anh ấy trông gầy nhom. (After the serious illness, he looks extremely thin.)
  • Con mèo hoang bị bỏ rơi trông gầy nhom và yếu ớt. (The abandoned stray cat looked gaunt and weak.)
  • Bà cụ gầy nhom nhưng vẫn làm việc đồng áng mỗi ngày. (The old woman is skeletal but still works in the fields every day.)

Advanced Usage

• "gầy nhom xác": An intensified form emphasizing a wasted, skeletal appearance.
  • Nạn nhân của nạn đói chỉ còn là một cái xác gầy nhom. (The famine victim was just a wasted, skeletal body.)

Variants and Related Words

• Gầy (adj): Thin, slim. (A more general and neutral term for thinness).
• Gầy gò (adj): Thin and bony, lanky. (Suggests a tall, thin frame with visible bones).
• Ốm yếu (adj): Sickly and weak. (Focuses on the state of poor health accompanying thinness).
• Khô héo (adj): Withered, shriveled. (Often used for plants or metaphorically for people, emphasizing a loss of vitality).

Synonyms

• Skin and bones: (Idiomatic) Extremely thin.
• Emaciated: Abnormally thin or weak, especially because of illness or lack of food.
• Gaunt: (Of a person) Lean and haggard, especially because of suffering, hunger, or age.
• Skeletal: Relating to or resembling a skeleton; very thin.

Related Idioms

• Gầy như que củi: (As thin as a stick of firewood). An idiom describing someone who is very thin.
  • Cậu bé suy dinh dưỡng, gầy như que củi. (The malnourished boy is as thin as a stick.)

1. Thin as lath