Definition

Verb: - To lick; to lap: To move the tongue over a surface, typically to taste, clean, moisten, or consume something. This is the core action of using the tongue. - To touch lightly (like a flame): Used metaphorically to describe something, like flames, touching or flickering over a surface lightly and repeatedly.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Con chó đang liếm đĩa. (The dog is licking the plate.)
  • Cô ấy liếm que kem. (She licked the ice cream cone.)
  • Ngọn lửa liếm vào tường. (The flames licked at the wall.)

Advanced Usage

• "liếm môi": to lick one's lips.
  • Anh ấy liếm môi khi nhìn thấy bữa ăn ngon. (He licked his lips when he saw the delicious meal.)
• "liếm vết thương": to lick a wound (both literal for animals and figurative for recovering from a setback).
  • Sau thất bại, anh ta phải về nhà liếm vết thương. (After the failure, he had to go home to lick his wounds.)

Variants and Related Words

• Liếm láp (verb): To lick repeatedly or thoroughly, often implying careful cleaning or savoring.
  • Con mèo liếm láp bộ lông của nó. (The cat licked its fur clean.)
• Liếm mép (verb phrase): Synonymous with "liếm môi" (to lick one's lips).

Synonyms

• Làm sạch bằng lưỡi: To clean with the tongue.
• Chạm nhẹ (nghĩa bóng): To touch lightly (figurative sense, e.g., for flames).

Related Phrases (Phrasal Verbs)

Note: As a single verb, "liếm" does not combine with particles to form distinct phrasal verbs with different meanings in the same way English verbs do. The combinations above ("liếm môi", "liếm vết thương") are fixed verb-object phrases.

Related Idioms

• Liếm gót: To lick someone's boots (to flatter or be obsequious to someone in authority).
  • Hắn ta sẵn sàng liếm gót sếp để được thăng chức. (He is willing to lick the boss's boots to get a promotion.)
• Liếm lá: This is a component of the idiom "liếm lá lề đường" (to be a street urchin/hooligan), though it is rarely used alone.
• Lưỡi không xương nhiều đường lắt léo: (Proverb: "The tongue is boneless but it can twist many ways.") This relates to the deceptive power of speech, indirectly connected to the action of the tongue used in "liếm".

verb

1. to lick; to lap
   • liếm môi
     to lick one's lips