Definition

1. Verb:
   • To harm; to injure: "hãm hại" means to cause damage, injury, or suffering to someone, often with a connotation of malice or premeditation.
   • To sabotage; to undermine: It can also imply acting to secretly undermine or destroy someone's well-being, position, or life.

Usage

• The verb "hãm hại" is used to describe intentional, often secretive or treacherous, acts meant to cause harm. It carries a strong negative moral judgment.
• It is typically used with a direct object (the person or thing being harmed).
• Common Collocations: (to harm others), (to sabotage a colleague), (to be harmed/victimized).

Examples

• Verb:
  • Hắn tìm cách hãm hại đối thủ của mình. (He sought ways to harm his rival.)
  • Nhiều người tốt đã bị hãm hại một cách oan uổng. (Many good people have been unjustly harmed.)
  • Không nên hãm hại nhau vì lợi ích cá nhân. (One should not harm each other for personal gain.)

Advanced Usage

• "hãm hại lẫn nhau": to harm each other; mutual sabotage.
  • Trong môi trường cạnh tranh khốc liệt, họ có nguy cơ hãm hại lẫn nhau. (In a fiercely competitive environment, they risk harming each other.)

Variants and Related Words

• Hãm (verb): This root can mean to brake, to curb, or to suppress. In the context of "hãm hại," it contributes the sense of "holding back" or "suppressing" someone destructively.
• Hại (verb): to harm, to damage. This is the core meaning of causing injury.
• Làm hại (verb phrase): to harm, to injure. A more general and common synonym.
• Gian hại (verb, literary): to harm treacherously.

Synonyms

• Làm hại: to harm, to injure (general term).
• Gây tổn hại: to cause damage.
• Phá hoại: to sabotage, to destroy (often for physical things or plans).
• Ám hại: to assassinate; to harm/kill secretly (stronger, often implies murder).

Related Idioms/Phrases

• Giở thủ đoạn hãm hại: to resort to harmful tricks/schemes.
  • Kẻ xấu luôn giở thủ đoạn hãm hại người lương thiện. (Evil people always resort to schemes to harm honest people.)
• Bị hãm hại chết người: to be fatally harmed/victimized.
  • Nạn nhân bị hãm hại chết người trong một vụ án bí ẩn. (The victim was fatally harmed in a mysterious case.)

verb

1. to harm; to injure