Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Sore and watery (eyes): Describes eyes that are irritated, red, and constantly wet, often due to infection or excessive crying.
   • Completely crushed; squashed to a pulp: Describes something, typically soft like fruit, that has been utterly flattened and mashed.

2. Verb (colloquial):

   • To grin widely; to gape: To open one's mouth very wide, especially when laughing broadly or in a silly, unrestrained manner.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • Đau mắt đỏ khiến mắt cô bé sưng và toét. (Conjunctivitis made the little girl's eyes swollen and sore and watery.)
  • Quả cà chua bị rơi xuống đất toét hết cả. (The tomato fell to the ground and was completely squashed.)

• Verb:

  • Nghe chuyện hài, nó cười toét miệng ra. (Listening to the joke, he grinned from ear to ear.)

Advanced Usage

• The verb form is almost exclusively used in the fixed phrase "cười toét miệng" (to laugh with a wide-open mouth), emphasizing a big, often goofy, grin.

Variants and Related Words

• Toét hoét (adj): An intensified form, often used for eyes, emphasizing a worse state of being sore, runny, and inflamed.
  • Mắt đứa trẻ toét hoét vì viêm kết mạc. (The child's eyes were badly sore and runny from conjunctivitis.)

Synonyms

• For eyes: Inflamed, runny, chassieux (medical).
• For crushed state: Mashed, pulverized, squashed flat.
• For grinning: To grin broadly, to gape.

Related Idioms

• Cười toét miệng: To grin from ear to ear; to laugh with one's mouth wide open.
  • Bức ảnh ngộ nghĩnh khiến mọi người cười toét miệng. (The funny picture made everyone grin from ear to ear.)

verb

1. to gape