vai cày

Người nông dân đặt vai cày lên vai con trâu trước khi ra đồng.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • Yoke: A wooden frame or bar that is fitted across the shoulders of a draft animal, such as an ox or a water buffalo, to enable it to pull a plow or other heavy agricultural implement.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Con trâu đeo vai cày để kéo cái cày. (The buffalo wears a yoke to pull the plow.)
  • Người nông dân đang làm một chiếc vai cày mới. (The farmer is making a new yoke.)

Advanced Usage

• The term "vai cày" is specific to traditional Vietnamese wet-rice agriculture and refers precisely to the equipment used for plowing. It symbolizes hard labor and the central role of draft animals in farming.

Variants and Related Words

• Ách (n): Another word for "yoke." While "vai cày" is specific to plowing, "ách" can be a more general term for a yoke and is also used metaphorically (e.g., the yoke of oppression).

Synonyms

• Yoke: A wooden crosspiece fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart they are to pull.
• Oxbow: The U-shaped part of a yoke that fits under the neck of an ox.

Related Idioms

• While there is no direct idiom using "vai cày", the concept is embedded in phrases describing hard work and farming life, such as "một nắng hai sương" (enduring sun and dew) or "bán mặt cho đất, bán lưng cho trời" (selling one's face to the soil, one's back to the sky).