tù đày
Definition
Noun:
- Imprisonment and exile: A state or condition of being both incarcerated and banished, often as a form of punishment. It combines the ideas of confinement in prison and forced removal to a remote location.
- A period of harsh imprisonment: Refers to a prolonged and severe term of incarceration, typically under difficult conditions.
Verb:
- To imprison and exile: The act of sentencing someone to both prison and banishment.
- To subject to harsh imprisonment: To condemn someone to a severe and oppressive prison sentence.
Usage Examples
Noun:
- Họ phải chịu cảnh tù đày. (They had to endure imprisonment and exile.)
- Mười năm tù đày đã làm thay đổi con người ông ấy. (Ten years of harsh imprisonment changed him as a person.)
Verb:
- Chế độ cũ đã tù đày nhiều nhà cách mạng. (The old regime imprisoned and exiled many revolutionaries.)
- Kẻ phản bội bị tù đày đến một hòn đảo xa xôi. (The traitor was imprisoned and exiled to a remote island.)
Advanced Usage
- The term often carries a strong historical and political connotation, referring to punishments meted out by authoritarian regimes or colonial powers.
- It can be used metaphorically to describe a state of feeling trapped or banished in a psychological or emotional sense.
- Cảm giác cô đơn như một nhà tù, anh ấy sống trong sự tù đày tinh thần. (Loneliness was like a prison; he lived in a state of mental exile.)
Variants and Related Words
- Tù tội (n): Imprisonment, jail time. A more general term for incarceration.
- Lưu đày (v): To exile, to banish. Focuses more on the act of expulsion than the combination with imprisonment.
- Đày ải (v): To persecute, to torment (often through forced labor or exile). Suggests active mistreatment.
Synonyms
- Incarceration and banishment: The combined punishment of jail and exile.
- Hard labor / Penal servitude: A severe form of imprisonment involving forced work, often in exile.
- Captivity: The state of being imprisoned.
Related Idioms
- Tù đày khổ sai: To be sentenced to hard labor in exile. Emphasizes the punitive and exhausting aspect.
- Những tù nhân chính trị bị kết án tù đày khổ sai. (The political prisoners were sentenced to hard labor in exile.)