vùng và vùng vằng

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Sulky and petulant: Describes a person, especially a child, who is visibly and actively in a bad mood, often showing resistance, stubbornness, and making a fuss. It implies a combination of sulkiness and defiant, uncooperative behavior.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Đứa trẻ vùng và vùng vằng không chịu mặc áo. (The child was sulky and petulant, refusing to put on his shirt.)
  • Nó ngồi một góc, mặt vùng và vùng vằng vì bị mẹ mắng. (He sat in a corner with a sulky and petulant face because his mother scolded him.)

Advanced Usage

• This phrase is a reduplicative form that intensifies the meaning of "vùng vằng." It is almost exclusively used to describe a person's moody, resistant, and difficult attitude, often in a childish or immature context.

Variants and Related Words

• Vùng vằng (adjective): To be sulky, to pout, to act in a stubbornly resistant manner.
  • Cô bé vùng vằng bỏ đi. (The girl left in a sulk.)

Synonyms

• Sulky: Bad-tempered and resentful.
• Petulant: Childishly bad-tempered or peevish.
• Pouting: Showing displeasure by pushing out the lips.

Related Idioms

• While "vùng và vùng vằng" itself is idiomatic, it is related to the broader concept of childish defiance. A related expression is:
  • Làm mặt vùng: To make a sulky face.

    • Đừng có làm mặt vùng nữa! (Stop making that sulky face!)