Chimbridge Singlish Dictionary

definitions

noun

1. a deep-fried puffed tofu with a spongy texture. It is popularly used in dishes with sauce, soup, or gravy which it can soak up, such as laksa and yong tau foo.

We eat bean curd puffs or taupok all the time, but seldom do we see it featured as the main "star" of the meal.

— 2002 November 26, Pauline D Loh. Today, "Stuffed puffs". p.23

2. a ragging or hazing ritual where a person’s colleagues, classmates, friends etc. tackle that person to the ground and pile their bodies on top of them, while shouting 'tau pok!'. It is popularly performed by adolescents or young men, especially boys in Junior College, though most institutions have moved to forbid the practice as it is deemed to be dangerous.

... when Nick was about to finish his initial two years of NS, his bunkmates subjected him to a round of tau pok ... Here, it referred to a prank where several people pile on top of another, and flatten that person like a piece of tau pok. Although I imagined it as part of a hazing ritual, Nick insisted that tau pok here was done good-naturedly ...

— 2021, Chris K. K. Tan. Stand Up for Singapore?: National Belonging Among Gay Men in the Lion City. Taylor & Francis. ISBN: 9781000450729

synonyms:

tau huay

verb

1. to tackle a person to the ground and (as a group of people) pile on top of them, usually done as a ragging or hazing ritual

synonyms:

tau huay

interjection

1. shouted by a leader (sometimes humorously referred to as the tau kay) to a group to execute such a ritual on a target person, or by the taupokers as they pile onto the target

synonyms:

tau huay