Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An unskilled Asian laborer.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A name given by Europeans in India, China, etc., to a native laborer employed as a burden-carrier, porter, stevedore, etc., or in other menial work: as, a chair-coolie, a housecoolie; hence, in Africa, the West Indies, South America, and other places, an East Indian or Chinese laborer who is employed, under contract, on a plantation or in other work.
- Of or pertaining to coolies or a coolie, especially when under contract for service out of his own country: as, coolie labor; the coolie trade.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Same as
cooly .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun offensive, slang An
unskilled Asian worker , usually ofChinese orIndian descent; a labourer; a porter. Coolies were frequently transported to other countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries asindentured labourers. - noun offensive, slang, West Indies A person of
Indian descent.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (ethnic slur) an offensive name for an unskilled Asian laborer
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The Bihari coolie is be-headed by poor and unemployed Marathi youth for Maratha pride.
Global Voices in English » Indian Elections 2009: Allegations and Concerns of The Common People 2009
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The last coolie is a partner with a microscopic share.
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Whole populations there have never known freedom; to such people one master is no worse than another; the lot of the coolie is the same in either case.
Our Common Mission 1955
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The favourite waterproof of the coolie is a huge cloak made of rice straw, the long ends sticking out.
Peeps at Many Lands: Japan John Finnemore
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The coolie is a character, -- patient, hard-working, uncomplaining, supplying a demand throughout the Orient, made necessary, as we have seen, by the indolence of the Burmese and of the Malays, to mention only two examples.
Travels in the Far East Ellen Mary Hayes Peck
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There's another frame depicting his country, and in which there are two characters wearing 'coolie' hats.
The WritingYA Weblog: Life Is Like A Box Of... Butterfly Bars? tanita davis 2008
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The term "coolie" is a pejorative term refering to usually unskilled laborers from Asia, particularly China and India. . .
City Council Stands Up To ACLU on Behalf of LAPD and The City 2006
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(Nocsa) president Sam Ramsamy a "coolie" and made a number of racist remarks during the evening.
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As a prime example of such stereotypes, the National Review magazine ran a cover in March depicting a slanted-eye and "coolie" hatted President, a bucked teeth and Communist-garbed First Lady, and a Buddhist monk-attired Vice President, over the headline "The Manchurian Candidates."
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I would not take him up country to be bullied and demeaned as a "coolie," and I made for him an arrangement with the proprietor of my hotel that during my absence John should help to wait in his restaurant.
The Idler Magazine, Vol III. May 1893 An Illustrated Monthly Various
liu_xing commented on the word coolie
= bitter strength (from Chinese)
January 23, 2007
thinkcharlene commented on the word coolie
The Shanghai Gesture
February 14, 2007