jialat

comparative more jialat · superlative most jialat · alternative chialat

1. ManglishSinglisharchaicoriginal senseSapping one’s strength; tiresome.

   wah lao...... jialat ahhhh you.

   1997 October 19, Thye Hoon Lin, “Singapore Ties to Heroin Traffickers: News Release”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet)

   1 more example

   None of the economists polled expect the economy to contract - be it a technical recession or a real recession - and hit the alamak and jialat ranges.

   2015 December 17, Kelly Tay Soon Weilun, “The Singapore economy, colloquially speaking”, in Business Times, →OCLC

2. ManglishSinglishbroadlyTerrible, disastrous; (of a person) affected by difficulties, in a dire situation.

   Jialat, jialat (very serious). This one jialat. Tell me about it man. Did you use it?

   2006, Elangovan, Smegma, Singapore, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 25

   2 more examples

   According to his doctors, every minute he had remained unconscious would have added to his life being in danger. "If it were 10 minutes... jialat (terrible)!" he said.

   2019 March 2, Lyn Chan, “When an emergency hits, will you know what to do?”, in Today

   Seeing my Dad in that state was a huge shock. I was like ‘eh what the fuck! What’s wrong with you?!’ […] ‘Lucky I didn’t die, boy!’ he told me. Jialat sia.

   2020 January 14, Justin Vanderstraaten, quoting Moon, “Drugs, Cash, and Prison. When Does Enough Become Enough?”, in ricemedia.co, archived from the original on 26 Feb 2024