lò mò
Definition
- Verb:
- To grope one's way; to feel one's way: To move slowly and cautiously, especially in darkness or when visibility is poor, often using one's hands or feet to navigate.
- To proceed slowly and laboriously: To advance with difficulty, often due to obscurity, complexity, or a lack of clear direction.
Usage Examples
- Verb:
- Anh ấy lò mò trong bóng tối để tìm công tắc đèn. (He groped his way in the dark to find the light switch.)
- Họ lò mò qua khu rừng rậm vào ban đêm. (They felt their way through the dense forest at night.)
- Tôi phải lò mò tìm hiểu hướng dẫn sử dụng. (I had to laboriously figure out the user manual.)
Advanced Usage
- The term often implies a sense of clumsiness, uncertainty, and a lack of ease or speed in movement or progress. It is frequently used for physical movement but can be extended metaphorically to describe slow, tentative progress in non-physical tasks like learning or investigation.
Variants and Related Words
- Mò mẫm (v): To grope, to fumble; a close synonym often used interchangeably with .
- Đứa bé mò mẫm tìm đồ chơi trong hộp. (The child groped for the toy in the box.)
Synonyms
- Grope: To feel about or search blindly or uncertainly.
- Fumble: To use the hands clumsily while doing or handling something.
- Feel one's way: To proceed cautiously.
Related Idioms
- Lò mò như mò kim đáy bể: To grope around like searching for a needle in a haystack; to describe an extremely difficult and tedious search.
- Tìm một tài liệu cũ trong kho mà không có danh mục thì lò mò như mò kim đáy bể. (Looking for an old document in the warehouse without a catalog is like groping for a needle in a haystack.)