xấu bụng
Definition
- Adjective:
- Malicious, ill-intentioned: Describes a person who harbors bad intentions, enjoys others' misfortune, or thinks in a mean-spirited way. It refers to a wicked or spiteful nature.
- (Rare) Having a weak or bad stomach: An older, less common usage describing someone with poor digestion or a sensitive stomach.
Usage Examples
- Adjective (Malicious):
- Đừng tin hắn, hắn là người rất xấu bụng. (Don't trust him; he is a very malicious person.)
- Cô ấy cười khi tôi vấp ngã, thật là xấu bụng. (She laughed when I tripped and fell; that was so mean-spirited.)
- Adjective (Weak Stomach - Rare):
- Tôi không ăn được đồ sống vì tôi xấu bụng. (I can't eat raw food because I have a weak stomach.)
Advanced Usage
- The term is almost exclusively used in its figurative sense (malicious) in modern Vietnamese. The literal meaning related to digestion is now considered archaic and is rarely used or understood in everyday conversation.
Variants and Related Words
- Xấu tính (adj): bad-tempered, having a bad character.
- Anh ta không chỉ xấu bụng mà còn xấu tính. (He is not only malicious but also bad-tempered.)
- Ác ý (n): ill will, malicious intent.
- Hành động của cô ta đầy ác ý. (Her action was full of ill will.)
Synonyms
- Malicious: characterized by malice; intending or intended to do harm.
- Mean-spirited: having or showing a tendency to be unkind or unsympathetic.
- Spiteful: showing or caused by malice.
- Ill-natured: disagreeable or antisocial in nature.
Related Idioms
- Bụng dạ không ngay thẳng: (lit. stomach and intestines are not straight) meaning not honest or upright.
- Kẻ bụng dạ không ngay thẳng thì hay xấu bụng. (A person who is not upright is often malicious.)
- Trong bụng nghĩ khác: (lit. thinking differently inside the stomach) meaning to think one thing but say another, to be insincere.
- Anh ta nói vậy thôi, chắc trong bụng nghĩ khác, xấu bụng lắm. (He just says that; surely he thinks differently inside, very malicious.)