vũng bùn

Trẻ con nhảy qua vũng bùn trên đường làng.

Definition

1. Noun:

   • A mud puddle / A patch of mud: A small, shallow, and often temporary depression in the ground that is filled with soft, wet earth (mud) and water.
   • A muddy area / A bog: A localized area of ground that is saturated with water and has a thick, soft, muddy consistency, making it difficult to walk through.

2. Noun (figurative):

   • A quagmire / A morass: A complex, difficult, and entrapping situation from which it is hard to extricate oneself.

Usage Examples

• Noun (literal):

  • Sau cơn mưa, đường đất xuất hiện nhiều vũng bùn. (After the rain, many mud puddles appeared on the dirt road.)
  • Đôi giày của tôi bị lấm đầy bùn sau khi dẫm phải một vũng bùn. (My shoes were covered in mud after stepping in a patch of mud.)

• Noun (figurative):

  • Dự án đó đã trở thành một vũng bùn về tài chính. (That project has become a financial quagmire.)
  • Anh ấy đang cố gắng thoát khỏi vũng bùn của những món nợ. (He is trying to escape the morass of debt.)

Advanced Usage

• The figurative usage is common in formal and literary contexts to describe protracted, messy situations in politics, business, or personal life.
• It emphasizes a sense of being stuck, slowed down, or dirtied by the circumstances.

Variants and Related Words

• Vũng nước (n): A puddle (of water).
• Bãi lầy (n): A marsh, a swamp (a larger, more permanent wetland area).
• Chỗ lầy (n): A muddy spot.

Synonyms

• Mud puddle (literal).
• Quagmire (both literal and figurative).
• Morass (both literal and figurative).
• Bog (literal).

Related Idioms

• Lún sâu vào vũng bùn: To sink deeper into the quagmire.
  • Càng cố gắng cứu vãn, công ty càng lún sâu vào vũng bùn nợ nần. (The more they tried to save it, the deeper the company sank into the quagmire of debt.)