pok kai

adj

pok kai

adj

Singapore /ˈpɔk̚ kai/

Etymology Cantonese 仆街 (puk1 gaai1, “fall onto street, drop dead, go to hell, [Singapore, Malaysia] to have no money)”), from 仆 (puk1, “fall”) + 街 (gaai1, “street”).

1

Manglish, Singlish, Slang Having no money; broke; bankrupt.

  • Out shopping, child to parent. “Daddy I want this, daddy I want that.” Daddy, “Daddy pok kai awreddy^([sic]), ask your mummy.”2003, Sylvia Toh Paik Choo, The complete Eh, Goondu!:
  • Today I went to Swensen's for dinner, even when I'm totally pok-gai.2010 March 12, “No Words”, in Pearl, retrieved 05 Nov 2015:
1 more example
  • After buying my girlfriend her branded bag, I’m officially pok kai, please don’t ask me to go shopping or clubbing with you.2015, “Pok Gai”, in Singaporelang - What the Singlish?, archived from the original on 03 Mar 2019:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.