Definition

1. Verb:
   • To feel or grope in the dark: To move one's hands carefully, often slowly and uncertainly, to find or identify something without the use of sight, typically due to darkness or blindness.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Khuya thế này, còn rờ rẩm đi đâu? (Where are you groping your way to at this late hour?)
  • Thầy bói mù đi rờ rẩm. (The blind fortune-teller was groping his way about.)
  • Tôi phải rờ rẩm tìm công tắc đèn trong phòng tối. (I had to grope for the light switch in the dark room.)

Advanced Usage

• The verb often implies a slow, tentative, and clumsy action due to a lack of visual guidance. It can be used metaphorically to describe attempting to understand something with great uncertainty, similar to the English phrase "to grope in the dark."

Variants and Related Words

• Rờ (v): to touch or feel with the hand, often more general than "rờ rẩm."
  • Đừng rờ vào bức tranh ướt. (Don't touch the wet painting.)
• Mò mẫm (v): to grope, to fumble; a close synonym that also conveys searching uncertainly.

Synonyms

• Grope: To feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands.
• Fumble: To use the hands awkwardly in doing something or in searching for something.

Related Idioms

• While "rờ rẩm" itself is not typically part of a fixed idiom, the action it describes is central to the Vietnamese expression "mò mẫm trong bóng tối" (to grope in the darkness), which is used both literally and figuratively.

1. Feel in the dark, grope in the dark
   • Khuya thế này, còn rờ rẩm đi đâu?
     Where are you feeling your way to at this late hour?
   • Thầy bói mù đi rờ rẩm
     The blind fortune-teller was groping his way about