kẹn

Ông ấy rất kẹn, không bao giờ mời ai ăn uống gì cả.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Stingy, miserly: Describes a person who is unwilling to spend money or use resources, often to an excessive degree.
   • Tight-fisted, parsimonious: Characterizes someone who is excessively careful with money, often showing a lack of generosity.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Ông ấy rất kẹn, không bao giờ mời ai ăn uống gì cả. (He is very stingy; he never treats anyone to anything.)
  • Đừng có kẹn quá, đôi khi cũng phải chi tiêu cho bản thân chứ. (Don't be so tight-fisted; sometimes you have to spend on yourself.)

Advanced Usage

• "kẹn kẹn": A reduplicated form used for emphasis or to describe a somewhat stingy manner.
  • Tính nó kẹn kẹn, nên chẳng ai muốn đi chung với nó. (He has a rather stingy nature, so no one wants to go out with him.)

Variants and Related Words

• Keo kiệt (adj): Stingy, miserly. A more common and stronger synonym.
• Bủn xỉn (adj): Stingy, mean. Often used in a more colloquial or derogatory sense.
• Hà tiện (adj): Parsimonious, frugal to a fault.

Synonyms

• Stingy: Unwilling to give or spend; ungenerous.
• Miserly: Relating to or characteristic of a miser; hoarding wealth.
• Tightfisted: Not willing to spend or give much money; stingy.
• Parsimonious: Unwilling to spend money or use resources; stingy or frugal.

Related Idioms

• "Kẹn như mắm đổ": (Literally: Stingy like spilled fish sauce) An idiom emphasizing extreme stinginess, implying that even a small, inexpensive loss is treated as a major tragedy.
  • Đừng mượn tiền hắn, hắn kẹn như mắm đổ mà. (Don't borrow money from him; he's stingy to the extreme.)