jialat

• chialat
• chia lat

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

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

1. sapping of one’s strength; tiresome
   • 1997 October 19, Lin, Thye Hoon, “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 70778692:

     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.

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

     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.