Definition

1. Verb:
   • To be a parasite; to sponge off others: To live at the expense of others, consuming resources without contributing anything useful or productive in return.
   • To be useless; to be a burden: To cause only cost, loss, or damage to others while being incapable of doing anything beneficial.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Nó chỉ biết ăn hại gia đình. (He only knows how to sponge off his family.)
  • Sống ăn hại xã hội là điều đáng xấu hổ. (To live as a parasite of society is shameful.)
  • Đồ ăn hại! (You good-for-nothing! / What a parasite!)

Advanced Usage

• "ăn hại đái nát": An idiomatic phrase meaning "to eat out of house and home" or "to be a completely destructive burden." It emphasizes causing ruinous waste and damage through one's parasitic behavior.
  • Thằng con lười biếng đó về nhà là chỉ ăn hại đái nát. (That lazy son, when he comes home, just eats us out of house and home.)

Variants and Related Words

• Ký sinh (v): to parasitize; often used in a biological or figurative sense.

  • Nó có lối sống ký sinh vào bạn bè. (He has a parasitic lifestyle, leeching off his friends.)

• Vô dụng (adj): useless; describes a person or thing that serves no purpose.

  • Cái máy này hoàn toàn vô dụng. (This machine is completely useless.)

Synonyms

• To sponge: to obtain something from others without paying or working for it.
• To leech: to cling to and drain resources from someone.
• To be a freeloader: to take advantage of others' generosity without offering anything in return.
• To be a burden: to be a source of difficulty or expense for others.

Related Idioms

• Ăn bám: to live off; to depend on someone else for support, often with a negative connotation of laziness.

  • Nó đã ba mươi tuổi mà vẫn còn ăn bám bố mẹ. (He's thirty years old and still living off his parents.)

• Ăn không ngồi rồi: to sit idle and eat; to be idle and unproductive.

  • Cả ngày nó chỉ ăn không ngồi rồi. (All day he just sits around idle.)

verb

1. To eat one's head off, to live as a parasite
   • ăn hại xã hội
     to live as a parasite of society, to sponge on society
   • đồ ăn hại!
     what a parasite! what a sponger!
   • ăn hại đái nát
     to eat out of house and home