Definition

1. Adjective:

   • To break up / to disperse: Describes a gathering, party, or event that has ended and the participants have scattered. It refers to the state after a crowd has dissolved.
   • To lose cohesion / to fall apart: Used figuratively to describe a group, organization, or collective spirit that has lost its unity, momentum, or enthusiasm, becoming slack or disorganized.

2. Adjective (figurative):

   • Listless / sluggish / deflated: Describes a state of mental or emotional lethargy, lack of focus, or diminished energy, often after a period of excitement or intense activity.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Tiệc đã rã đám, mọi người về hết rồi. (The party has broken up, everyone has gone home.)
  • Sau khi thua trận, tinh thần đội bóng trở nên rã đám. (After losing the match, the team's morale became deflated and disorganized.)
  • Công ty đang trong tình trạng rã đám, không ai muốn làm việc. (The company is in a sluggish and demoralized state; no one wants to work.)

Advanced Usage

• The term often carries a negative connotation, implying not just an end, but a somewhat disappointing, anti-climactic, or disorderly dissolution.
• It can describe the physical act of dispersing or the resulting psychological state of disarray and low energy.

Variants and Related Words

• Đám (n): a crowd, a group, a gathering (e.g., - the crowd, - wedding party). "Rã đám" literally means "the crowd/scattering of the gathering."
• Rã (v): to dissolve, to fall apart, to disintegrate (e.g., - sugar dissolves in water).

Synonyms

• Disperse: to break up and scatter.
• Disband: to stop operating as an organized group.
• Deflated: having lost confidence or enthusiasm.
• Listless: lacking energy or enthusiasm.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Cả thèm chóng chán: (idiom) quickly enthusiastic and quickly bored. This state can lead to a feeling of rã đám.
  • Nó có tính cả thèm chóng chán, nên mọi dự án đều rã đám nhanh chóng. (He has a quickly enthusiastic and quickly bored nature, so all projects fall apart rapidly.)