English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

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[1] (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, <aescu...@my-deja.com>, “Pretentious Bullshit Alive and Well in Singapore”, in soc.culture.singapore[2] (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[3], archived from the original on 25 June 2014:
      You know what’s cheem? Our CPF is cheem.

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