Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use coolie in a sentence

12 example sentences · noun

Coolie means 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. Example: “Outside, beyond the sun-baked station yard, a rice mill chugged away in the distance, and sweating coolies unloaded bags of rice from creaking bullock carts.”

Examples of coolie by meaning

nounAn unskilled Asian worker, usually of Chinese or Indian descent; a labourer; a porter. Coolies were frequently...

  • Outside, beyond the sun-baked station yard, a rice mill chugged away in the distance, and sweating coolies unloaded bags of rice from creaking bullock carts.1943 November and December, G. T. Porter, “The Lines Behind the Lines in Burma”, in Railway Magazine, page 325
  • Coolie-identity is as much the product of self-perception as it is the construction of a category by those who did not belong to it.1992, Jan Breman, E. Valentine Daniel, “Conclusion: The Making of a Coolie”, in E. Valentine Daniel, Henry Bernstein, Tom Brass, editors...
  • Community histories did not necessarily feature the coolie, partly due to the fact that “coolie” is a classed term.2008, Lisa Yun, The Coolie Speaks: Chinese Indentured Laborers and African Slaves in Cuba, Temple University Press, page xix

More sentences with coolie

  • On the waterfront, just outside the foreign settlements, the streets swarmed with filth-ridden beggars and coolies.[1982 [1975], Otto Braun, “Shanghai, 1932–1933”, in Jeanne Moore, transl., Chinesische Aufzeichnungen (1932-1939) 一个共产国际顾问在中国 [A Comintern…. From the entry Zhabei
  • Last year Chinese coolie coats were the rage, along with snazzy neckties and boyish bobs.1927 September 20, “Dad is anxious to see what s[tyles?] in high school: Casts anxious eye on school mode; short slickers are due”, in…. From the entry snazzy
  • Tank-topped black crepe pajamas come with a reversible quilted coolie jacket — black on one side, striped on the other.1975 March 6, “In Tempo Of The Times, Couture Shows Switch-N-Swap Multiples”, in Circleville Herald, 92nd year, number 55, Circleville…. From the entry tank-topped
  • A man had chopped a Sanitary Department coolie to death after an argument about money, Supreme Court was told today.1959 June 8, China Mail, page 10. From the entry chop
  • A hillman from some distant village in Kumaon comes into Almora to make his fortune as a jhampani or coolie.1925, Sir Gerald Burrard, Big game hunting in the Himalayas and Tibet. From the entry jhampani
  • There is little doubt that the palki, which was carried by four coolies, is the oldest type of closed, or "bund", gari.1931 June, Frank E. Bushby, "Old-Time Conveyances in Calcutta", Bengal Past & Present, Vol. XLI, Nos. 81–82, pp. 138–139. From the entry palki
  • The charge against two lukongs of assaulting a coolie to the danger of his life, on the 21st ult., has been remanded for another week.1900 September 14, China Mail, The Charge against Lukongs, page 2. From the entry lukong
  • Government surveyors set to work, importing hundreds of Indian coolies, thousands of donkeys and camels, and the millions of sleepers required for this monstrous engineering project.2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower. From the entry sleeper
  • During the year we gathered together in the coolie room a few times to celebrate certain festive occasions, like the Ghost Month or the Mooncake Festival.1994, Claire Chiang, “Female Migrants in Singapore: Towards a Strategy of Pragmatism and Coping”, in Maria Jaschok, Suzanne Miers…. From the entry mooncake

Meaning of coolie

  1. noun 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.
  2. noun An Indian or a person of Indian descent.

Full definition of coolie

Questions about coolie in a sentence

How do you use coolie in a sentence?
Coolie is used as a noun. For example: “Outside, beyond the sun-baked station yard, a rice mill chugged away in the distance, and sweating coolies unloaded bags of rice from creaking bullock carts.”
What is a short sentence with coolie?
“Last year Chinese coolie coats were the rage, along with snazzy neckties and boyish bobs.”
What does coolie mean?
Coolie means 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.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coolie (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use coolie in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/coolie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.