Nuance Dictionary / Social Situations
밑 빠진 독에 물 붓기 Mit pajin doge mul butgi
Pouring money into a bottomless pit where every won vanishes with zero tangible progress.
What does 밑 빠진 독에 물 붓기 mean?
밑 빠진 독에 물 붓기 (Mit pajin doge mul butgi) means: Pouring money into a bottomless pit where every won vanishes with zero tangible progress.
Natives don't use this for a minor purchase regret; they reach for it when a financial hemorrhage has become a cruel way of life. It carries a heavy, exhausted sigh—the bitter realization that your hard-earned cash is evaporating into rent, loan interests, or dead-end investments while your actual savings account stays stubbornly, depressingly empty. Learners often treat it like a clever idiom to memorize for an exam, but in the wild, it's the linguistic equivalent of staring at a credit card bill with your head in your hands.
Other sides of 밑 빠진 독에 물 붓기
◆ Productivity Futility — While textbooks file this away as general financial waste, corporate and academic natives weaponize it for systemic exhaustion—specifically, the soul-crushing loop of onboarding people who immediately quit, or explaining foundational concepts to someone who forgets them by morning. It isn't just about losing money; it's the profound, bone-deep fatigue of investing effort into a system that retains absolutely nothing.
🎙️ 밑 빠진 독에 물 붓기는 표기 그대로 읽지 않아요 — 실제로는 [믿 빠진 도게 물 붇끼]로 소리나요 (경음화, 받침규칙, 연음법칙). 발음 연습하기 →
How it's actually used
- 월세 내고 카드값 갚고 나면 밑 빠진 독에 물 붓기야.
wolse naego kadeukap gapgo namyeon mit pajin doge mul butgiya.
After paying rent and credit card bills, it's just pouring water into a bottomless pit.
💡 Captures the bleak cycle of modern urban survival where earnings vanish the second they land. - 주식에 더 넣어도 밑 빠진 독에 물 붓기 아닐까?
jusige deo neoeodo mit pajin doge mul butgi anilkka?
Isn't putting more money into stocks just pouring water into a bottomless pot?
💡 Used to talk sense into someone (or yourself) before throwing good money after bad investments. - 학원비로 다 나가니까 아주 밑 빠진 독에 물 붓기야, 진짜.
hagwonbiro da naganikka aju mit pajin doge mul butgiya, jinjja.
Since it all goes to hagwon tuition, it's seriously a bottomless pit.
💡 Highlights the crushing financial weight of private education expenses in Korea.
Related words in Social Situations
모 아니면 도 Mo animyeon do모임 mo-im목이 빠지다 Mogi ppajida목에 힘을 주다 Mok-e him-eul juda모르다 moreuda