苦力 (kǔ lì) — (historical) coolie; manual laborer; strenuous physical work; hard labor
Definition
Historical term for an unskilled manual laborer (e.g. dock worker, rickshaw puller), often with a sense of exploitation. The second sense, 'strenuous labor,' is a modern extension of the same image.
noun
(historical) cooliemanual laborerstrenuous physical workhard labor
Measure word · 个
Examples
- 苦力。Tā yǐ qián zài mǎ tou zuò kǔ lì.He used to work as a coolie at the docks.
- ，苦力。Zhè fèn gōng zuò tài xīn kǔ le, jiǎn zhí shì kǔ lì huó.This job is too hard; it's practically slave labor.
- 苦力。Tā bù xiǎng yí bèi zi dāng kǔ lì.He doesn't want to be a laborer all his life.
Appears in
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