lẵng đẵng
Definition
- Adjective / Adverb:
- To wait tediously and for a long time: Describes the state of waiting in a prolonged, drawn-out, and often frustrating manner. It emphasizes the tedious passage of time while waiting for something.
- To drag on tediously: Refers to a situation or process that extends for an annoyingly long duration.
Usage Examples
- Adjective / Adverb:
- Tôi phải chờ lẵng đẵng ở sân bay suốt sáu tiếng đồng hồ. (I had to wait tediously at the airport for a full six hours.)
- Công việc cứ lẵng đẵng mãi không xong. (The work just keeps dragging on tediously without being finished.)
- Họ hẹn nhau rồi để cô ấy chờ lẵng đẵng. (They made an appointment and then left her waiting tediously.)
Advanced Usage
- The word "lẵng đẵng" is often used in a reduplicative form for emphasis and is almost exclusively paired with verbs like "chờ" (to wait) or "kéo dài" (to prolong) to describe a negative, tiresome experience of extended duration.
Variants and Related Words
- Lằng nhằng (adj): complicated, long-winded, tangled. While related in conveying a sense of tedious prolongation, "lằng nhằng" focuses more on unnecessary complexity rather than just the passage of time.
- Câu chuyện lằng nhằng khó hiểu. (The story is complicated and hard to understand.)
Synonyms
- To wait interminably: to wait for what seems like an endless time.
- To be protracted: lasting for a long time, especially longer than usual or necessary.
- Tediously long: characterized by tedious slowness and length.
Related Idioms
- Chờ đợi lẵng đẵng: This is the most common collocation, forming a set phrase meaning "to wait a tediously long time."
- Dự án này khiến chúng tôi chờ đợi lẵng đẵng. (This project has kept us waiting a tediously long time.)