tekan

From Malay tekan (“to press or pressure”).

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): /təˈkɑn/

tekan (third-person singular simple present tekans, present participle tekaning, simple past and past participle tekaned)

1. (Singapore, colloquial, slang) To bully or treat harshly.
   • 1992 February 22, soc.culture.asean, Usenet‎:

     "Wah lau! You tekan him, ah? But he bigger than you, man!"

   • 2003 October 17, “Questions thick and fast in Parliament”, in TODAY, page 2:

     We have also been through training and we all kena tekan (were bullied), but even if we were ill-treated, we didn’t know that we were being ill-treated

   • 2009 July 8, “Victim offered sex: Attackers”, in TODAY, page 10:

     When Hamdan joined their cell, Iryan told him the 1.6m-tall victim was someone they could tekan (bully).

   • 2013 July 17, “Paige Chua wears the pants”, in TODAY, page 60:

     It will expose us to different ways of thought … like waking up at 4am and being tekan.

• Kenta, taken

tēkan

1. Romanization of 𐍄𐌴𐌺𐌰𐌽