cheem

English

Alternative forms

• chim

Etymology

Borrowed from either Hokkien 深 (chhim, “deep”) or Teochew 深 (cim¹, “deep”).

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃʰiːm(˦)]

Adjective

cheem (comparative more cheem, superlative most cheem)

1. (Singapore, informal) Deep; profound; complex.
   • 1999 December 23, Dennis Kwek, “Pretentious Bullshit Alive and Well in Singapore”, in soc.culture.singapore‎ (Usenet):

     You might consider it too cheem and arty farty but just pick up any journal on cultural studies and you'll find more cheem and arty farty stuff in them

   • 1999 December 30, <[e-mail]>, “Pretentious Bullshit Alive and Well in Singapore”, in soc.culture.singapore‎ (Usenet):

     Postmodernist discourse is *not* cheem.

   • 2014 June 23, Jonathan Lim, “17 Singlish words that offer so much more than their English equivalents”, in Mothership.SG‎, archived from the original on 25 June 2014:

     You know what’s cheem? Our CPF is cheem.

Derived terms

• chiminology

Further reading

• Singlish vocabulary on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Meche, meech