What does “ho jiak” mean?

Ho jiak in the Singlish dictionary: what it means, where it comes from and how it’s said.

ho jiak

adjectiveHokkien

Delicious, good to eat.

“The char kway teow here very ho jiak.”

Also: ho chiak

eat snake To skive, slack off at work while looking busy (Hokkien jiak zua, word for word).
gong Silly, dumb (Hokkien and Cantonese).
haolian Showing off, boastful (Hokkien).
heng Lucky.
hor Looks for agreement (“right?”), or flags a warning or a telling-off.
hosay Good, great, well off (Hokkien “ho seh”).
huat Prosper, strike it rich; “Huat ah!” at Chinese New Year.
jiak Eat (Hokkien).

What does “ho jiak” mean in Singlish?

Delicious, good to eat. It’s an adjective.

Where does “ho jiak” come from?

From Hokkien. Other Singlish words from Hokkien include eat snake, gong, haolian and heng.

How do you use “ho jiak” in a sentence?

“The char kway teow here very ho jiak.”

How else is “ho jiak” spelt?

Singlish has no fixed spelling: people also write “ho chiak”.

Liddat’s own words, from the Singlish dictionary: 312 words and phrases, A to Z.