tù tội

Definition

1. Noun:
   • Imprisonment and punishment / time in prison: The general state or condition of being incarcerated as a punishment for a crime. It refers to the collective experience of being a prisoner and serving a sentence.
   • Crimes and resulting penalties: Can refer to criminal acts and the consequent punishments, especially imprisonment, as a combined concept.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Sau nhiều năm tù tội, ông ấy đã hoàn lương. (After many years of imprisonment, he has reformed.)
  • Anh ta không muốn dính líu đến tù tội. (He doesn't want to be involved in crimes and prison.)
  • Chế độ ấy đã giam cầm nhiều người vô tội trong tù tội. (That regime imprisoned many innocent people.)

Advanced Usage

• The word "tù tội" is often used in a broad, somewhat abstract sense to convey the hardship, suffering, and loss of freedom associated with being in prison, rather than just the legal fact of incarceration.
  • Cuộc đời của anh ấy đầy rẫy tù tội. (His life has been full of the misery of prison.)

Variants and Related Words

• Tù (n): Prison, jail; or a prisoner.
  • Hắn phải vào tù. (He had to go to prison.)
• Tội (n): Crime, sin; guilt.
  • Hắn phạm tội giết người. (He committed the crime of murder.)
• Tội phạm (n): Criminal, offender.
• Tù đày (v/n): To exile; to imprison and persecute.

Synonyms

• Imprisonment: The state of being confined in prison.
• Incarceration: The formal state of being locked up in jail.
• Prison time: A colloquial term for a period spent in prison.

Related Idioms

• Tù tội chung thân: A life sentence; imprisonment for life.
  • Bản án là tù tội chung thân. (The sentence was life imprisonment.)
• Chốn tù tội: Refers to the place or state of imprisonment.
  • Thoát khỏi chốn tù tội. (To escape from the place of imprisonment.)