Nuance Dictionary / Culture & Language
갑질 gap-jil
Systematic abuse of power and psychological bullying by superiors, managers, or corporate owners over subordinates and contractors.
What does 갑질 mean?
갑질 (gap-jil) means: Systematic abuse of power and psychological bullying by superiors, managers, or corporate owners over subordinates and contractors.
Textbooks often translate 'gap-jil' simply as 'tyranny' or 'abuse of power,' but natives use it to pinpoint a very specific, culturally ingrained structural sickness. It’s not just a boss being mean; it’s the microscopic assertion of absolute dominance—forcing a manager to tie your shoelaces, treating a delivery driver like subhuman trash, or making an ad agency rewrite a pitch twenty times for free because 'you hold the budget.' When you drop this word, you aren't just complaining; you are calling out a systemic rot where someone with a tiny bit of leverage weaponizes it to crush human dignity.
Other sides of 갑질
◆ Customer-to-Service Worker Dominance — While *gap-jil* broadly means any abuse of power, this specific face of the word explodes when an entitled customer treats a cashier, delivery driver, or call-center agent like human garbage just because 'the customer is king.' It’s not just being rude; it’s a localized performance of feudal dominance fueled by consumer capitalism. Learners often miss that this isn't corporate bullying between bosses and employees—it’s an open-air class war played out over a cup of coffee or a late delivery.
🎙️ 갑질은 표기 그대로 읽지 않아요 — 실제로는 [갑찔]로 소리나요 (경음화). 발음 연습하기 →
How it's actually used
- 팀장이 또 임원 눈치 보면서 우리한테 갑질하네.
tim-jang-i tto im-won nun-chi bo-myeon-seo u-ri-han-te gap-jil-ha-ne.
The team leader is walking on eggshells around the executives again and taking it out on us with total power-tripping.
💡 Reveals how gap-jil flows downward: fear of superiors breeds petty tyranny over subordinates. - 하청 업체라고 대놓고 갑질하는 거 진짜 역하다.
ha-cheong eop-che-ra-go dae-no-ko gap-jil-ha-neun geo jin-jja yeok-ha-da.
It's genuinely sickening how they openly abuse their power just because we're a subcontracted company.
💡 Highlights the economic vulnerability that makes B2B gap-jil so insidious and hard to fight. - 배달앱 리뷰에 별점 테러를 하겠다는 식의 고객 갑질이 날이 갈수록 심해지고 있어요.
baedal-aep ribyue byeoljeom teoreoreul hagetdaneun sik-ui gogaek gapjiri nal-i galsurok simhaejigo isseoyo.
Customer abuse, like threatening a rating terror attack on delivery apps, is getting worse by the day.
💡 Used to describe abusive behavior by customers toward service workers.
Related words in Culture & Language
금강산도 식후경 Geumgangsando sikhugyeong구수한 gu-su-han국밥 guk-bap국수를 먹다 Guksureul meokda군필 gun-pil