Definition

1. Adjective (colloquial):
   • Not done at all / Completely undercooked: Used primarily to describe food, especially rice, that is very hard and completely uncooked in the center.
   • Alive and kicking: Used figuratively to describe a person or animal that is very much alive, often unexpectedly or resiliently so.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Cơm sống nhăn. (The rice is completely undercooked.)
  • Tưởng nó bị thương nặng, ai ngờ vẫn sống nhăn ra đấy. (I thought he was seriously injured, but who would have thought he's still alive and kicking.)

Advanced Usage

• This term is highly colloquial and expressive. It emphasizes an extreme state—either of being totally raw or fully alive. It is not used in formal writing.

Variants and Related Words

• Sống (adj): raw, uncooked, alive.

  • Cá sống (raw fish)
  • Cây còn sống (The tree is still alive.)

• Nhăn (adj, colloquial): This word on its own can imply something being crinkled or wrinkled (like skin), but in the compound "sống nhăn," it intensifies the meaning of "sống" to an extreme degree.

Synonyms

• Undercooked / Raw: For the culinary sense.
• Alive and well / Full of life: For the figurative sense.

Related Idioms

• Sống nhăn sống nhó: A reinforced variant emphasizing being stubbornly or tenaciously alive.
  • Sau trận ốm, cụ già vẫn sống nhăn sống nhó. (After the illness, the old man is still stubbornly hanging on to life.)

1. Not done at all
   • Cơm sống nhăn
     The rice is not done at all.
2. (thông tục) Be alive and kicking