Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Lank, lanky: Describes a person or object that is tall and thin, often to the point of appearing awkwardly slender.
2. Noun (archaic):
   • Generation, age-group: Refers to a group of people born and living at about the same time.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Cậu bé mới lớn trông rất nhòng. (The growing boy looks very lanky.)
  • Cô ấy cao nhòng. (She is tall and lanky.)
• Noun (archaic):
  • Họ cùng một nhòng với nhau. (They are of the same generation.)

Advanced Usage

• The adjective nhòng is often used in similes for vivid description, most famously in the idiom "nhòng như con sếu" (lanky like a crane).
• The noun usage (generation) is now considered old-fashioned (cũ) and is rarely used in modern, everyday Vietnamese.

Variants and Related Words

• Cao nhòng: A common collocation emphasizing both height and thinness. (Very tall and lanky)
• Lêu nghêu: A near-synonym for nhòng, also meaning very tall and thin, often with a connotation of being gawky or ungainly.

Synonyms

• Cao gầy: Tall and thin (neutral tone).
• Cò hương: Literally "fragrant crane"; a poetic or slightly humorous term for a lanky person.
• Dáng tầm vông: Having a bamboo-like figure; tall and slender.

Idioms

• Nhòng như con sếu: Lanky like a crane.
  • Sau một năm, nó cao lên và trở nên nhòng như con sếu. (After a year, he grew taller and became as lanky as a crane.)

1. Lank, lanky
   • Nhòng như con sếu
     Lanky like a crane.
2. (cũ) Generation, age-group
   • Cùng một nhòng
     To be of the same generation (age-group)