Definition

1. Verb phrase:
   • To hang up the cooking pot: An idiomatic expression describing a state of having no food to cook or eat, often due to extreme poverty. It signifies being forced to go without a meal.
   • To be destitute / to be broke: Figuratively, it describes a situation of having no money or resources, leading to an inability to provide for basic needs like food.

Usage Examples

• Verb phrase:
  • Nhà đông con, có hôm phải treo niêu. (With many children in the house, there were days they had to hang up the pot.)
  • Sau trận lũ, nhiều hộ dân treo niêu vì mất hết lương thực. (After the flood, many households had empty pots as they lost all their food supplies.)
  • Công ty phá sản, các cổ đông gần như treo niêu. (The company went bankrupt, leaving the shareholders practically destitute.)

Advanced Usage

• The phrase is often used in a historical or rural context, evoking the image of an empty clay cooking pot () hung over a cold hearth, symbolizing hunger and hardship.

Variants and Related Words

• Đói meo (adj): to be starving, extremely hungry.

  • Cả ngày chưa ăn gì, tôi đói meo rồi. (I haven't eaten anything all day; I'm starving.)

• Túng quẫn (adj): to be in dire straits, in a state of financial desperation.

  • Gia đình ông ấy đang lâm vào cảnh túng quẫn. (His family is in dire straits.)

Synonyms

• To go hungry: to suffer from lack of food.
• To be penniless: to have no money.
• To be reduced to beggary: to be forced into a state of extreme poverty.

Related Idioms

• Treo chảo: (literally "to hang up the frying pan") A similar idiom with the same meaning of having nothing to cook or eat.

  • Mùa màng thất bát, nông dân treo chảo. (The crop failed, and the farmers had empty pans.)

• Cơm không lành, canh không ngọt: (literally "the rice isn't good, the soup isn't sweet") Describes a meal eaten in discord or a situation of poverty and unhappiness.

  • Nhà ấy lúc nào cũng cơm không lành, canh không ngọt. (That household always has meals filled with strife.)