tất ta tất tưởi
Definition
- Adjective:
- Hurried and flustered: Describes a state of acting with excessive haste and visible disarray, often due to panic or lack of time, leading to a disorganized or frantic manner.
- In a frantic rush: Conveys a sense of being in a desperate, chaotic hurry, typically with a connotation of being unprepared or unkempt.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Thấy muộn giờ, cô ấy bước vào phòng họp một cách tất ta tất tưởi. (Seeing she was late, she entered the meeting room in a hurried and flustered manner.)
- Anh ấy chạy tất ta tất tưởi xuống sân bay vì sợ lỡ chuyến bay. (He rushed frantically down to the airport for fear of missing his flight.)
Advanced Usage
- The phrase is a reduplicative idiom, where "tất ta" and "tất tưởi" combine to create a vivid, emphatic description of frantic haste. It is more expressive and literary than the simpler synonym "tất tả."
Variants and Related Words
- Tất tả (adj): hurried, hasty. A more common and slightly less intense synonym.
- Cô ấy đi một cách tất tả. (She left in a hurry.)
Synonyms
- Frantic: wild or distraught with fear, anxiety, or other emotion.
- Harried: feeling strained as a result of having demands persistently made on one; harassed.
- In a flap: (informal) in a state of agitation or panic.
Related Idioms
- Chân ướt chân ráo: to have just arrived (literally "wet foot dry foot"), often used to describe someone acting hastily immediately upon arrival, which can relate to a "tất ta tất tưởi" state.
- Anh ấy vừa đến, chân ướt chân ráo đã làm việc tất ta tất tưởi. (He had just arrived and immediately started working in a frantic rush.)