mèo mả gà đồng

Một con mèo mả gà đồng lang thang gần một bức tường đổ nát.

Definition

1. Idiom (Figurative Expression):
   • Vagrants or vagabonds; disreputable and wandering individuals: A derogatory term used to describe people, often young, who have no stable home or job, loiter in public places, and are considered to be of low moral character or involved in petty mischief. It literally refers to stray cats from graves and wild chickens from fields, symbolizing rootless and untamed beings.

Usage Examples

• Idiom:
  • Mấy đứa mèo mả gà đồng ấy lại tụ tập trước cổng trường. (Those vagrants are gathering in front of the school gate again.)
  • Anh ta chơi bời với bọn mèo mả gà đồng, chẳng làm nên trò trống gì. (He hangs out with those good-for-nothing vagabonds and accomplishes nothing.)

Advanced Usage

• The idiom is often used in a dismissive or scornful tone to criticize someone's lifestyle, companions, or lack of seriousness and stability. It implies a social judgment.

Variants and Related Words

• Lưu manh (n): A ruffian, a hoodlum; often implies criminal tendencies, stronger than just being a vagrant.
• Đầu đường xó chợ (idiom): Literally "street ends and market corners"; describes someone who frequents public places with no real purpose, similar in connotation to "mèo mả gà đồng".

Synonyms

• Vagabonds: People who wander from place to place without a home or job.
• Good-for-nothings: People deemed worthless or lazy.
• Street urchins (though this often refers specifically to children).

Related Idioms

• Cá mè một lứa: Literally "carp of the same brood"; used to say people are of the same (often bad) kind, birds of a feather.
  • Bọn chúng là mèo mả gà đồng, cá mè một lứa cả. (They are all vagabonds, birds of a feather.)