Definition

Adjective: - Very long and straight; stretched out rigidly: Describes something that is excessively long, straight, and often stiff or rigid in appearance or posture. - Lying fully extended: Describes the act of lying down stretched out at full length, often implying a lack of movement or a rigid posture.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Sợi dây dài thượt. (The rope is very long and straight.)
  • Ông ấy nằm thượt ra giường. (He lay stretched out rigidly on the bed.)
  • Cô ấy có khuôn mặt dài thượt. (She has a very long, drawn face.)

Advanced Usage

• The word "thượt" is very rarely used alone in modern Vietnamese. Its primary function is as a descriptive complement following an adjective (like ) or a verb (like ), intensifying the meaning to imply an extreme, rigid, or excessive state.
• It is most commonly found in the reduplicated form "thườn thượt", which intensifies the meaning further, often describing something as being very long and dragging or, when related to sighing, as a repeated, drawn-out action.

Variants and Related Words

• Thườn thượt (adj/adv): A reduplicated form of .
  • Describes something as being very long, continuous, and dragging.

    • Con đường thườn thượt. (The road is very long and winding.)
  • Describes the sound of repeated, long sighs.

    • Thở dài thườn thượt. (To sigh long and repeatedly.)

Synonyms

• Elongated: having been lengthened.
• Stretched out: extended to full length.
• Ramrod straight: perfectly straight and stiff.

Related Idioms

• Thở dài thườn thượt: to sigh long and heavily, one sigh after another.
  • Nghe tin buồn, anh ấy chỉ biết thở dài thườn thượt. (Hearing the sad news, he could only sigh long and heavily.)