Definition

1. Verb phrase:
   • To grow subsidiary/dry-season crops: Refers specifically to the agricultural practice of cultivating crops (such as corn, potatoes, beans, etc.) on a field after the main rice crop has been harvested. This utilizes the land during the dry season or a secondary growing period.

Usage Examples

• Verb phrase:
  • Nông dân thường làm màu sau vụ lúa đông xuân. (Farmers often grow subsidiary crops after the spring rice harvest.)
  • Trên thửa ruộng ấy, gia đình tôi làm màu trồng ngô và đậu. (On that field, my family grows dry-season crops like corn and beans.)

Advanced Usage

• The phrase "làm màu" is a fixed agricultural term. It is not typically used in a figurative or metaphorical sense outside of farming contexts.
• It implies a specific sequence in crop rotation: the main wet-season rice crop () is followed by the subsidiary dry-season crops ().

Variants and Related Words

• Vụ màu (n): The dry-season crop or the subsidiary crop season itself.
  • Vụ màu năm nay bội thu. (This year's dry-season crop yielded a bumper harvest.)
• Cây màu (n): Subsidiary crops, dry-land crops (as opposed to wet rice).
  • Ngô và khoai lang là những cây màu phổ biến. (Corn and sweet potatoes are common subsidiary crops.)

Synonyms

• Trồng cây vụ đông: To grow winter crops.
• Trồng cây phụ: To grow auxiliary/subsidiary crops.
• Canh tác khô: Dryland farming (a broader term).

Related Phrases (Phrasal Verbs)

• Làm màu làm mẩy: This is a completely different, idiomatic phrase meaning "to put on airs," "to act affectedly," or "to be fussy/finicky." It is homophonous but semantically unrelated to the agricultural term "làm màu".
  • Cô ấy hay làm màu làm mẩy khi được khen. (She often puts on airs when complimented.)

Related Idioms

• No common idioms are directly derived from the agricultural meaning of "làm màu". Be cautious not to confuse it with the idiomatic phrase "làm màu làm mẩy" mentioned above.

1. Grow subsidiary crops
   • Làm màu sau khi gặt vụ lúa chính
     To grow subsidiary crops after harvesting the main rice crop