Definitions

1. Noun:

   • Salted fish paste or sauce: A traditional Vietnamese fermented food made from fish, shrimp, or other seafood, combined with salt and sometimes rice, aged for an extended period. It is a pungent, savory condiment.
   • Salted fish (whole): Whole fish preserved in salt, often used in cooking or as a side dish.

2. Verb:

   • To press or purse (one's lips): To tightly close or press one's lips together, often to suppress anger, exertion, or speech.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • Bữa cơm có mắm thì ngon hơn. (A meal is more delicious with mắm.)
  • Mẹ tôi làm mắm cá lóc rất ngon. (My mother makes very delicious fermented snakehead fish mắm.)
  • Anh ấy gầy như con mắm. (He is as thin as a salted fish.)

• Verb:

  • Cô ấy mắm môi, mắm miệng để không nói ra. (She pressed her lips together to stop herself from speaking out.)
  • Anh ta phải mắm miệng để nhấc tảng đá nặng. (He had to clench his teeth to lift the heavy rock.)

Advanced Usage

• "Liệu cơm gắp mắm": An idiom meaning to live within one's means or to adjust one's lifestyle to one's resources. It literally means "to gauge the amount of rice to match the amount of mắm."

  • Gia đình nghèo phải biết liệu cơm gắp mắm. (Poor families must know how to live within their means.)

• "Mắm môi mắm miệng": A phrase describing the action of tightly pressing one's lips, often indicating suppressed anger or intense effort.

  • Nghe tin đó, ông ấy chỉ biết mắm môi mắm miệng. (Upon hearing that news, he could only press his lips together in silence.)

Variants and Related Words

• Mắm tôm: A specific type of mắm made from fermented shrimp, very pungent and salty.

  • Bún đậu thường ăn kèm với mắm tôm. (Bún đậu is often served with fermented shrimp paste.)

• Mắm nêm: Another type of fermented fish sauce, often used as a dipping sauce or cooking ingredient.

• Mắm ruốc: Fermented krill paste.
• Nước mắm: Fish sauce, a liquid seasoning derived from fermented fish. (Note: This is a distinct, related product, not the same as solid/paste ).

Synonyms

• Mắm muối (n): Salted fish/pickle (emphasizes the salting method).
• Dưa mắm (n): Pickled vegetables, sometimes combined with .

Related Phrases

• Ăn mắm: To eat mắm (as a condiment).

  • Người miền Trung rất thích ăn mắm. (People from Central Vietnam love to eat mắm.)

• Làm mắm: To make mắm.

  • Mùa này là mùa làm mắm của các làng chài. (This season is the mắm-making season for fishing villages.)

Related Idioms

• Gầy như con mắm: As thin as a salted fish. An idiom describing someone who is very skinny.
  • Sau trận ốm, nó gầy như con mắm. (After the illness, he became as thin as a salted fish.)

noun

1. salted fish