Definition

1. Adverb:
   • In a lumbering, heavy, and slow manner: Describes the slow, labored, and often awkward movement of someone carrying a heavy load or being heavily pregnant.
   • Struggling under a weight: Indicates the visible effort and difficulty in moving due to bearing something heavy.

Usage Examples

• Adverb:
  • Anh ấy khệ nệ bê thùng nước lên cầu thang. (He lumbered up the stairs with the water crate.)
  • Chị ấy đi lại khệ nệ vì đang mang bầu những tháng cuối. (She moves slowly and heavily because she is in her final months of pregnancy.)
  • Ông lão khệ nệ kéo chiếc vali nặng. (The old man struggled to pull the heavy suitcase.)

Advanced Usage

• "khệ nệ với": to struggle with (a heavy object).
  • Cô ấy khệ nệ với bao gạo. (She is struggling with the sack of rice.)
• Used to describe not just physical objects but also metaphorical burdens in a poetic or humorous sense.
  • Anh ta khệ nệ với đống công việc chất cao. (He is lumbering under a mountain of work.)

Variants and Related Words

• Nặng nề (adj): Heavy, burdensome. Can describe both physical weight and serious situations.
• Lọ mọ (adv): In a slow, meticulous, and often clumsy manner. Similar in depicting slow movement but not necessarily due to weight.
• Lục đục (adv/adj): Describes a clumsy, fumbling movement or a state of discord. Differs as it often implies a lack of coordination rather than weight.

Synonyms

• Laoịch quạo (adv, informal): Moving in a slow, heavy, and ungainly way.
• Lù đù (adv): Moving slowly and sluggishly, often due to laziness or fatigue, not necessarily from carrying weight.

Related Phrases (Phrasal Verbs)

Note: As an adverb, "khệ nệ" typically modifies verbs and does not form phrasal verbs. It is commonly paired with verbs of movement or carrying. - Đi khệ nệ: to walk in a lumbering/heavy manner. - Bê/Bưng/Mang khệ nệ: to carry something in a slow, struggling manner due to its weight.

Related Idioms

• Khệ nệ như bà chửa: (Simile) As lumbering as a pregnant woman. Used to emphasize very slow, heavy, and awkward movement.
  • Mang cái túi đó mà đi khệ nệ như bà chửa. (Carrying that bag, he moves as lumbering as a pregnant woman.)

1. Lumber (under the weight of a heavy load), struggle with a heavy thing