Definition

1. Verb:
   • To touch or feel gently with the fingertips: To make light, exploring contact with an object or surface using the tips of the fingers, often with a sense of delicacy or curiosity.
   • To dawdle or procrastinate (colloquial): To do something very slowly, causing unnecessary delay; to drag out a task or activity.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Đứa trẻ mân mê món đồ chơi mới. (The child gently fingered the new toy.)
  • Đừng mân mê mãi cái điện thoại, làm việc đi. (Stop fiddling with your phone and get to work.)
  • Công việc đơn giản vậy mà anh ta cứ mân mãi cả buổi. (The task is so simple, yet he dawdled over it the whole morning.)

Advanced Usage

• "mân mê": A reduplicative form that intensifies the meaning, often implying a repetitive, lingering, or absent-minded action of touching or fiddling.

  • Bà cụ mân mê tấm ảnh cũ. (The old lady gently stroked the old photograph.)

• "mân mê mân mó": An extended colloquial phrase emphasizing prolonged, often annoying, fiddling or handling.

  • Ai mân mê mân mó làm hỏng đồ của tôi thế này? (Who's been fiddling with and ruined my stuff like this?)

Variants and Related Words

• Mân mó (v): Similar to "mân mê," meaning to handle or touch repeatedly, sometimes with a slightly more intrusive connotation.

Synonyms

• To finger: To touch or handle with the fingers.
• To dawdle: To waste time; to be slow.
• To procrastinate: To delay or postpone action.

Related Idioms

• Mân mê mân mó: To fiddle with something incessantly or unnecessarily.
  • Có việc gì thì làm đi, đừng ngồi đó mân mê mân mó. (If you have work to do, do it. Don't just sit there fiddling about.)