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炒魷魚
  caau2 jau4 jyu4*2   jyutping
  chao3 you2 yu2   pinyin
get the sack; to be fired; (literally: to fry squid)

In the 1950s and 60s, shop assistants in Hong Kong usually lived in the rear portion of the shop where they had to bring along their own straw mat to sleep on at night. If they were fired by their boss, they would have to take away their mat which, being made of straw, could be readily rolled up. And this rolled-up mat, some of them had cross-shaped design, looked very much like a piece of freshly-fried squid which rolls up as a result of the cross-shaped cuts made on its back.
verb

Level: 3   Google Frequency: 217,000

This term is used in Cantonese, not Mandarin/Standard written Chinese.
炒魷魚 / 炒鱿鱼

This word has been viewed 2825 times since 30th Oct 2012, was added by claw on 20th Jul 2004 09:04 and last edited on 25th Feb 2009 13:49
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Characters in this word:

 caau2  -  fry; speculate; boost; dismiss
 jau4  -  squid
 jyu4  -  fish
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Copyright Adam Sheik 2003-2024.