gabra

English

Etymology

From Malay gabra.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɡaː.bɹaː/

Adjective

gabra (not comparable)

1. Panicky and confused.
   • 1978 September 17, “Inside the mind of a rifleman”, in The Straits Times‎^[1]:

     Who like army. No freedom and NCOs always shout. They have loud voices. They shout only we gabra (panic).

   • 1986 November 18, “Slanging the message across”, in The Straits Times‎^[2]:

     In the sports field, the nervous little boy who is drafted into the squad to make up a full team gets all “gabra” (or confused) when he receives the ball and “cocks up” the match resulting in his team’s defeat.

   • 2001 June 4, soc.culture.malaysia‎^[3] (Usenet):

     Just poke fun only you gabra.... how to survive like that?

Usage notes

More commonly used in spoken Singapore Colloquial English than in written texts.

Anagrams

• Abgar, Barga, Gabar