Definition

1. Adjective:
   • On the verge of death, dying, at death's door: Describes a state of being barely alive, with life flickering weakly, often in the final moments before death.
   • Extremely weak or exhausted (figurative): Can be used metaphorically to describe something (like a machine, system, or project) that is barely functioning or about to fail completely.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Con chim bị thương nằm ngắc ngoải trên mặt đất. (The injured bird lay dying on the ground.)
  • Sau trận ốm nặng, ông ấy chỉ còn ngắc ngoải. (After the serious illness, he was barely clinging to life.)
  • Chiếc xe máy cũ của tôi chạy được vài mét rồi lại ngắc ngoải. (My old motorbike runs for a few meters and then sputters/dies.)

Advanced Usage

• "ngắc ngoải chờ chết": to be lingering, waiting for death.
  • Bệnh nhân đang ngắc ngoải chờ chết trên giường bệnh. (The patient is lingering, waiting for death on the sickbed.)
• "thoi thóp ngắc ngoải": a reinforcing phrase emphasizing the feeble, flickering state of being alive.
  • Ngọn lửa hy vọng chỉ còn thoi thóp ngắc ngoải. (The flame of hope is just flickering weakly.)

Variants and Related Words

• Hấp hối (verb): to be in the throes of death, to be dying (more formal/medical term).
• Thoi thóp (adjective/adverb): breathing faintly, gasping; describes weak, intermittent signs of life or function.
• Tắt thở (verb): to stop breathing, to die.

Synonyms

• Sắp chết: about to die.
• Hấp hối: in the death throes, dying.
• Thập tử nhất sinh: having nine chances of dying against one of surviving (idiom for extreme danger).

Related Idioms

• "Chết đuối vớ được cọc": (like) a drowning man clutching at a straw. This idiom shares the connotation of being in a desperate, near-fatal situation but finding a last-minute reprieve, unlike the definitive state of "ngắc ngoải".
• "Tàn hơi tắt thở": on one's last breath, breathing one's last. This is very close in meaning to "ngắc ngoải".

1. Be at death's door, be at the point of death