vập vào tường
Definition
- Phrasal Verb:
- To bump into a wall / to hit a wall: To physically collide with a wall, often accidentally and with some force.
- To hit a wall (figurative): To encounter a sudden, significant obstacle or barrier that halts progress, such as mental fatigue, a creative block, or an insurmountable problem.
Usage Examples
- Literal:
- Trong bóng tối, nó vập vào tường. (In the dark, he bumped into the wall.)
- Cậu bé chạy và vập vào tường. (The boy ran and hit the wall.)
- Figurative:
- Sau 10 tiếng học, đầu tôi như vập vào tường. (After 10 hours of studying, my mind hit a wall.)
- Dự án đã vập vào tường vì thiếu ngân sách. (The project hit a wall due to a lack of budget.)
Advanced Usage
- The phrase is often used to describe a sudden stop or failure after a period of effort or momentum. The figurative sense is very common in modern usage, analogous to the English idiom "to hit a wall."
Variants and Related Words
- Vập đầu: to bump one's head.
- Nó vập đầu vào cửa kính. (He bumped his head on the glass door.)
- Đâm sầm vào: to crash/plow into (can be used for walls or other objects).
- Xe đạp đâm sầm vào tường. (The bicycle crashed into the wall.)
Synonyms
- Literal: Collide with a wall, smash into a wall.
- Figurative: Reach an impasse, encounter a barrier, be stymied.
Related Idioms
- Húc đầu vào tường: (to butt one's head against the wall) – To persist stubbornly in a futile effort.
- Anh ấy cứ húc đầu vào tường với ý tưởng không khả thi đó. (He keeps butting his head against the wall with that unfeasible idea.)
- Tường thành: (city wall) – Often used metaphorically for a major barrier or stronghold.