Definition

1. Noun:

   • Soot: A black, powdery or flaky substance consisting largely of amorphous carbon, produced by the incomplete burning of organic matter such as wood or coal.
   • A black, dirty stain: A mark or spot of black dirt or grime.

2. Adjective:

   • Sooty, soot-smeared, dirty: Covered or marked with soot or a similar black, dirty substance.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • Nấu bếp, tay đầy nhọ. (After cooking, my hands are full of soot.)
  • Anh ấy lau vết nhọ trên tường. (He wiped the black stain off the wall.)

• Adjective:

  • Đứa trẻ nghịch than, mặt mũi nhọ nhem. (The child played with charcoal, his face was all sooty.)
  • Tay nhọ quá, đi rửa đi. (Your hands are too dirty; go wash them.)

Advanced Usage

• "nhọ mặt người": Literally "the soot/dirt on a person's face," this is a poetic and somewhat archaic term for dusk or twilight, the time when darkness begins to fall and visibility becomes poor, metaphorically like having one's face smudged.

  • Trời đã vào lúc nhọ mặt người. (It was already dusk.)

• "xử nhọ" (colloquial): To treat someone poorly, unfairly, or with contempt; to give someone a raw deal.

  • Đừng có xử nhọ với bạn bè như thế. (Don't treat your friends so shabbily like that.)

Variants and Related Words

• Nhọ nhem (adj): Grimy, smudged, dirty (often used for the face or hands).

  • Sau trận đấu, áo cầu thủ nhọ nhem bùn đất. (After the match, the player's jersey was grimy with mud.)

• Nhọ is a homophone of "nhọt" (meaning a boil or abscess), but they are distinct words with different meanings and origins.

Synonyms

• Bồ hóng: Soot (specifically the kind that accumulates from smoke).
• Vết bẩn: A stain, a dirty mark.
• Lem luốc: Dirty, grimy (often for face/hands).

Related Idioms and Expressions

• Nhọ như chó mực: As black/dirty as an ink dog (a very old idiom for something extremely black or dirty). (Note: This idiom is quite rare in modern usage.)
• Đen như nhọ: As black as soot; used to describe something very black or a streak of very bad luck.
  • Vận đen của anh ấy đen như nhọ. (His streak of bad luck is as black as soot.)

1. Soot
   • Nấu bếp, tay đầy nhọ
     To have one's hands smeared with soot after cooking
2. Sooty, soot-smeared
   • Nhọ má
     To have a soot-smeared cheek
   • Nhọ mặt người
     Dusk, twilight