jialat

English

Alternative forms

• chialat

Etymology

Borrowed from Hokkien 食力 (chia̍h-la̍t, “to be exhausting”), with spelling influenced by Mandarin Pinyin.

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): /ˌt͡sjɑːˈlɐt/, /ˌt͡ʃj-/, [ˌt͡ɕjɑ(ː)˨ˈlɐt̚˦]

Adjective

jialat (comparative more jialat, superlative most jialat) (colloquial, Singapore, Malaysia, Singlish, Manglish)

1. Sapping of one’s strength; tiresome
   • 1997 October 19, Thye Hoon Lin, “Singapore Ties to Heroin Traffickers: News Release”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):

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

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

     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.

2. (by extension) Terrible; disastrous
   • 2019 March 2, Lyn Chan, “When an emergency hits, will you know what to do?”, in Today‎^[1]:

     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.