quay đơ

Thân thiện

Một người thợ đang quay đơ để kéo sợi từ bông.

Definition

Adjective/Adverbial phrase: - In a dead faint; completely unconscious: Describes a state of losing consciousness suddenly and completely, often due to shock, illness, or extreme weakness. The person is limp and unresponsive. - Stone-cold dead: In some contexts, it can be used hyperbolically or in older usage to mean completely lifeless, having dropped dead.

Usage Examples

• As an adjective/adverbial phrase:
  • Nghe tin dữ, bà ấy quay đơ ra. (Upon hearing the bad news, she fell in a dead faint.)
  • Anh ta bị sốt cao đến mức quay đơ. (He had such a high fever that he passed out completely.)
  • Nó ngã quay đơ xuống đất. (He fell to the ground in a dead faint.)

Advanced Usage Notes

• "Quay đơ" is a vivid, informal expression primarily used in spoken Vietnamese or descriptive writing. It emphasizes the suddenness and completeness of the collapse.
• It often follows verbs like ngã (to fall), bị (to be/get), or xỉu (to faint), but can also stand alone as a predicate.
• The phrase conveys a more dramatic and severe state than just xỉu (to faint) or bất tỉnh (unconscious).

Variants and Related Words

• Quay lơ: A direct variant with identical meaning and usage (in a dead faint, stone-cold dead).
  • Sợ quá, nó quay lơ ra đất. (He was so scared he fell down in a dead faint.)
• Chết giấc: To faint, to be in a swoon (slightly less severe than "quay đơ").
• Bất tỉnh nhân sự: Unconscious, out cold (a more formal or medical term).

Synonyms

• Xỉu đi: To faint.
• Ngất đi: To pass out, to swoon.
• Bất tỉnh: Unconscious.

Related Idioms

• (Ngã/Chết) quay cẳng: (To fall/die) with legs stiffened. This is a related, more graphic idiom describing a sudden death or collapse.
  • Nó tức quá, suýt chết quay cẳng. (He was so angry he almost dropped dead.)

Important Note

While historical or dialectal references (like the Vietnamese-French dictionary entry) may include "raide mort" (stone dead), in modern Vietnamese, "quay đơ" is overwhelmingly used to mean "in a dead faint"—that is, completely unconscious but not necessarily deceased. The connotation of death is now mostly hyperbolic or found in very specific, forceful expressions.

Học thuật

1. in a dead faint