Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Too tall and lanky; excessively and awkwardly high or long: Describes an object, structure, or sometimes a person that is disproportionately tall, elongated, or high in a way that appears ungainly, unbalanced, or out of proportion.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Cái tháp này trông lêu nghêu và không ổn định. (This tower looks too tall and lanky and unstable.)
  • Anh ta cao lêu nghêu trong đám đông. (He stood too tall and lanky in the crowd.)
  • Cột cờ mọc lên lêu nghêu giữa sân trường. (The flagpole rose up, excessively tall and awkward, in the middle of the schoolyard.)

Advanced Usage

• The word is a reduplicative (lặp láy), formed from the base "lêu," and is primarily used to convey a negative aesthetic judgment or a sense of physical imbalance due to excessive height or length.

Variants and Related Words

• Lêu đêu (adj): Also describes something as being precariously high, tall, or perched in an unstable manner.
  • Cái tổ chim nằm lêu đêu trên ngọn cây. (The bird's nest is perched precariously high on the treetop.)

Synonyms

• Gangly: Tall, thin, and awkward.
• Lanky: Ungracefully tall and thin.
• Towering (in a negative sense): Imposingly or awkwardly high.

Related Idioms

• While "lêu nghêu" itself is not typically part of a fixed idiom, its descriptive quality is often used in vivid depictions to emphasize awkwardness or disproportion.