Definition

1. Verb:
   • To drift; to wander; to live a vagrant life: The primary meaning of "lưu lạc" is to live a life of wandering, moving from place to place without a stable home or fixed destination, often due to hardship or misfortune.
   • To live in exile; to be away from one's homeland: It conveys a sense of being far from one's native place or homeland, often with a feeling of displacement and nostalgia.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Sau chiến tranh, nhiều người phải lưu lạc khắp nơi. (After the war, many people had to drift/wander everywhere.)
  • Ông ấy đã lưu lạc ở nước ngoài hơn hai mươi năm. (He has lived in exile abroad for more than twenty years.)
  • Thân phận lưu lạc thật đáng thương. (A drifting/vagrant fate is truly pitiful.)

Advanced Usage

• "sống lưu lạc": to live a life of wandering.
  • Cậu bé mồ côi phải sống lưu lạc từ nhỏ. (The orphan boy had to live a wandering life from a young age.)

Variants and Related Words

• Phiêu lưu (v): to adventure; to have adventures. This word focuses more on adventure and exploration, while "lưu lạc" emphasizes hardship and instability.
• Lang thang (v): to roam, to loiter. This is a more general term for wandering without purpose, but it lacks the profound sense of displacement and long-term exile inherent in "lưu lạc".
• Tha hương (v/n): to live in a foreign land; a foreign land. This emphasizes the state of being away from home, closely related to the second meaning of "lưu lạc".

Synonyms

• Drift: to be carried along by currents of air or water, or by circumstances.
• Wander: to move about without a fixed course or destination.
• Live in exile: to live away from one's own country, often for political reasons.

Related Idioms

• Lưu lạc giang hồ: to wander the rivers and lakes; to live the life of a wanderer or vagabond.

  • Anh ta một đời lưu lạc giang hồ. (He spent a lifetime wandering the rivers and lakes.)

• Bèo dạt mây trôi / Bèo trôi sóng vỗ: (like) duckweed drifting, clouds floating / (like) duckweed drifting, waves beating. This poetic idiom is often used to describe a fate of being adrift and rootless, similar to "lưu lạc".

  • Số phận bèo dạt mây trôi. (A fate of drifting like duckweed and floating clouds.)

verb

1. to drift