Definition

1. Verb:
   • To wander, to drift, to live a vagrant life: "luân lạc" describes the state of being displaced, wandering from place to place without a stable home or purpose, often due to difficult circumstances.
   • To decline, to fall into hardship: In a more abstract sense, it can refer to a moral or social decline, a fall from a better state into a difficult or degraded situation.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Sau chiến tranh, nhiều người phải sống cuộc đời luân lạc. (After the war, many people had to live a wandering/vagrant life.)
  • Anh ấy đã luân lạc khắp nơi để tìm kế sinh nhai. (He drifted/wandered everywhere to find a livelihood.)
  • Gia đình sa sút, ông ấy dần luân lạc. (His family declined, and he gradually fell into hardship.)

Advanced Usage

• "Sống cuộc đời luân lạc": to live a wandering/vagrant life.

  • Nhân vật chính trong tiểu thuyết sống cuộc đời luân lạc đầy gian truân. (The main character in the novel lives a wandering life full of hardships.)

• "Thân phận luân lạc": a destitute/drifting fate.

  • Bài thơ nói lên thân phận luân lạc của người xa xứ. (The poem expresses the destitute fate of an expatriate.)

Variants and Related Words

• Lưu lạc (verb): to be displaced, to live in exile. This is a very close synonym, often used interchangeably with "luân lạc".

  • Gia đình ông đã lưu lạc sang nước ngoài. (His family was displaced to a foreign country.)

• Lang thang (verb): to roam, to wander (often without a specific goal). This word focuses more on the physical act of wandering.

  • Cậu bé lang thang trên các con phố. (The boy roamed the streets.)

Synonyms

• Phiêu bạt (verb): to drift, to wander (often with a poetic or literary tone).
• Lạc loài (verb): to be lost, to be out of one's element (emphasizes a sense of not belonging).

Related Phrases

• Đầu đường xó chợ: (idiom) literally "at the head of the road, at the corner of the market"; describes a state of extreme poverty and homelessness, often a result of "luân lạc".

  • Sau cơn bĩ cực, ông ta phải sống cảnh đầu đường xó chợ. (After the extreme hardship, he had to live a destitute life on the streets.)

• Nay đây mai đó: (idiomatic phrase) here today, gone tomorrow; describes an unstable, wandering life.

  • Cuộc sống nay đây mai đó khiến anh mệt mỏi. (The here-today-gone-tomorrow life made him tired.)

verb

1. to decline