li bì

Anh ấy ngủ li bì trên chiếc ghế sofa.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • In a deep, heavy, or comatose sleep: Describes a state of sleep that is extremely deep, heavy, or difficult to rouse from, often due to exhaustion, illness, or intoxication.
   • Lethargic, sluggish, or torpid: Describes a state of being extremely drowsy, lacking energy, or being unresponsive, not necessarily asleep.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Sau ca trực 24 giờ, anh ấy ngủ li bì cả ngày. (After a 24-hour shift, he slept like a log all day.)
  • Đứa trẻ sốt cao và nằm li bì trên giường. (The child had a high fever and lay lethargically in bed.)
  • Anh ta say rượu và ngã li bì xuống ghế. (He was drunk and slumped into a deep, heavy sleep on the chair.)

Advanced Usage

• Used to describe non-sleep states metaphorically: Can describe something as being in a state of extreme inactivity or stagnation.
  • Thị trường chứng khoán đang li bì, không có giao dịch nào đáng kể. (The stock market is sluggish, with no significant transactions.)
• "Ngủ li bì": This is the most common collocation, meaning "to sleep very heavily/deeply".

Variants and Related Words

• Mê man (adj): Delirious, in a daze; often overlaps with "li bì" in contexts of feverish or unconscious states.
• Thiu thiu ngủ (v): To doze, to be in a light sleep (antonym in terms of sleep depth).
• Hôn mê (adj/medical term): Comatose; a more severe and clinical state than "li bì".

Synonyms

• Say ngủ: Sleepy, drowsy (less intense).
• Bất tỉnh: Unconscious (more severe, often from injury).
• Uể oải: Lethargic, weary (focuses more on tiredness than sleep).

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Ngủ như chết / Ngủ như khúc gỗ: To sleep like a log/rock (idioms with similar meaning to "ngủ li bì").
• Trạng thái li bì: A lethargic/torpid state (a descriptive noun phrase).