giơ xương

Thân thiện

Sau trận ốm dài, anh ấy trông giơ xương.

Definition

1. Adjective (idiomatic):
   • To be nothing but skin and bone: To be extremely thin and emaciated, to the point where the bones are prominently visible beneath the skin. It describes a state of severe gauntness, often due to illness, malnutrition, or extreme hardship.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Sau trận ốm dài, ông ấy trông giơ xương. (After the long illness, he looks nothing but skin and bone.)
  • Con chó bị bỏ rơi trông giơ xương và yếu ớt. (The abandoned dog looks skin and bone and weak.)
  • Nạn đói khiến nhiều người trong làng trở nên giơ xương. (The famine left many people in the village as nothing but skin and bone.)

Advanced Usage

• This term is almost exclusively used in its idiomatic form "gầy giơ xương" or "trông giơ xương" to intensify the description of thinness. It is a vivid, figurative expression.

Variants and Related Words

• Gầy giơ xương (adj phrase): The full, most common form meaning "skinny to the point of showing bones," "emaciated."
  • Đứa trẻ suy dinh dưỡng gầy giơ xương. (The malnourished child is emaciated.)

Synonyms

• Emaciated: Abnormally thin or weak, especially because of illness or a lack of food.
• Gaunt: (Of a person) lean and haggard, especially because of suffering, hunger, or age.
• Skeletal: Relating to or resembling a skeleton; extremely thin.
• Skin and bone: An idiom meaning very thin.

Related Idioms

• Da bọc xương: (Lit: skin wrapping bone) Another Vietnamese idiom with an identical meaning to "giơ xương," describing extreme thinness.
  • Cụ già ốm nặng, chỉ còn da bọc xương. (The seriously ill old man is just skin and bone.)

Học thuật

1. gầy giơ xương
2. To be nothing but skin and bone