thất cơ

Definition

1. Verb (phrase):
   • To miss an opportunity / to fail to seize a chance: To let a favorable moment or strategic opening pass by, often due to hesitation or miscalculation.
   • To make a tactical error / to blunder strategically: To commit a mistake in planning or execution, especially in a competitive or adversarial context like warfare or games, leading to a disadvantage.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Đội nhà thất cơ và để đối thủ ghi bàn. (The home team missed their chance and let the opponent score.)
  • Tướng đó thất cơ nên bị bao vây. (That general made a tactical error and was surrounded.)
  • Anh ấy thất cơ khi không đầu tư vào thị trường mới. (He missed the boat by not investing in the new market.)

Advanced Usage

• This term is often used in formal, literary, or historical contexts, particularly when discussing strategy, competition, or critical moments.
• It implies a significant failure in judgment or timing that leads to a negative consequence, rather than a minor mistake.

Variants and Related Words

• Thất thế (v): to lose one's advantage or position.
• Lỡ cơ hội (v): to miss an opportunity (more common in everyday speech).
• Sai lầm chiến lược (n): strategic mistake.

Synonyms

• To miss one's chance
• To blunder
• To miscalculate
• To err tactically

Related Idioms

• Thất cơ thua trận: To lose a battle due to a tactical blunder.

  • Chỉ một phút thất cơ thua trận, cả đội phải ra về. (Just one moment of tactical error lost them the match, and the whole team had to go home.)

• Thất cơ lỡ vận: To miss one's chance and see one's fortune decline; to be ruined by a missed opportunity.

  • Ông ấy thất cơ lỡ vận, từ một thương gia giàu có trở nên tay trắng. (He missed his chance and his luck turned, going from a wealthy merchant to having nothing.)