Definition

1. Verb:
   • To keep on putting off (a debt or obligation): To repeatedly delay or postpone the fulfillment of a promise, especially the repayment of money, by making a series of excuses or new, later deadlines.
   • To procrastinate persistently: To habitually defer an action or decision through continuous, evasive delays.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Anh ta khất lần khoản nợ đã nhiều tháng. (He has been putting off the debt for many months.)
  • Đừng khất lần việc trả sách cho thư viện. (Don't keep putting off returning the book to the library.)
  • Họ cứ khất lần mà không chịu ký hợp đồng. (They keep procrastinating and refuse to sign the contract.)

Advanced Usage

• The term strongly implies a negative judgment, suggesting dishonesty, unreliability, or a lack of intention to ever fulfill the obligation. It is often used in contexts of financial debt, but can apply to any promised action.
• "khất lần khất lửa": An intensified, colloquial reduplication meaning to defer something endlessly with one flimsy excuse after another.
  • Công ty đó khất lần khất lửa việc thanh toán. (That company keeps dodging payment with endless excuses.)

Variants and Related Words

• Khất (v): To ask for a delay or extension (a more neutral term for requesting a postponement).

  • Tôi muốn khất nợ thêm một tuần. (I want to defer the debt for one more week.)

• Trì hoãn (v): To delay, to postpone (a more general, formal term without the strong connotation of evasion).

Synonyms

• To stall: To delay, especially by being evasive.
• To keep deferring: To postpone repeatedly.
• To use delaying tactics: To employ methods intended to cause delay.

Related Idioms

• Khất nợ đáo lệ: To keep postponing a debt until the next payment deadline arrives (describes a cycle of endless deferral).
  • Lão ấy khất nợ đáo lệ, chẳng bao giờ trả đúng hẹn. (That old man keeps rolling over his debt and never pays on time.)

1. Keep on putting off (paying a debt)