Lexic.us

Definition of Coolie

1. Noun. (ethnic slur) an offensive name for an unskilled Asian laborer.

Definition of Coolie

1. n. Same as Cooly.

Definition of Coolie

1. Noun. (context: ethnic slur pejorative slang) An unskilled Asian worker, usually of Chinese or Indian descent; a labourer; a porter. Coolies were frequently transported to other countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries as indentured labourers. ¹

2. Noun. (context: ethnic slur pejorative slang Trinidad West Indies Guyana and parts of Africa) A person of Indian descent. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Coolie

1. an Oriental laborer [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Coolie

Literary usage of Coolie

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1888)
"In Mauritius, again, the first regularly recorded attempt at organizing coolie emigration from India took place in 1834, when forty coolies were imported. ..."

2. Unbeaten Tracks in Japan: An Account of Travels in the Interior Including by Isabella Lucy Bird (1888)
"(Continued^ A coolie falls ill—Peasant Costume—Varieties in Threshing—The ... At noon we reached the Tone', and I rode on a coolie's tattooed shoulders ..."

3. Cotton is King, and Pro-slavery Arguments: Comprising the Writings of by David Christy, Albert Taylor Bledsoe, Thornton Stringfellow, Robert Goodloe Harper, James Henry Hammond, Samuel Adolphus Cartwright, Charles Hodge (1860)
"THE coolie TRAFFIC. It may be well to put upon record one of those extreme cases of hardship and cruelty which necessarily accompany the transportation of ..."

4. Cruising Among the Caribbees: Summer Days in Winter Months by Charles Augustus Stoddard (1895)
"The coolie village in connection with Port of Spain is about three miles from the town. The road thither is lined with bamboo thickets and rows of palm ..."

5. English Colonization and Empire by Alfred Caldecott (1891)
"coolie LABOUR. The place of the imported African is being taken up in many colonies of European nations, and especially of England, by imported Hindus and ..."

6. Stark's Guide-book and History of Trinidad: Including Tobago, Granada, and by Stark, James Henry (1897)
"157769 deposited in the government savings banks, ^66716 were coolie deposits, and this was in addition to savings amounting to ^124290 carried back to ..."

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