What does 주르륵 mean?
주르륵 (ju-reu-reuk) means: Liquid flowing down continuously.
Rain sliding down a windowpane, or tears suddenly flowing down a face like a broken dam.
Other sides of 주르륵
◆ Tears and Emotional Release — Textbooks teach you the verb 울다, but natives reach for 주르륵 when they want to paint the exact, cinematic picture of liquid breaking free without melodrama. It captures a moment of surrendered *체면* (face) — that split second where you stop trying to hold it together in public and the dampness just wins. Learners often misuse it for loud sobbing, but *주르륵* is silent, physical, and devastatingly real; it's what happens when you're trying to maintain a polite *존댓말* conversation while your eyes betray you entirely.
◆ Liquid Spillage and Leakage — Natives reach for 주르륵 when a thin, focused stream of liquid—be it an iced Americano condensation drop sliding down a plastic cup in a stifling Seoul subway, or soy sauce tracing a tragic path down your white shirt at a company dinner—refuses to just drip and instead makes a run for it. Textbooks often treat this as a dry, clinical onomatopoeia for 'leaking,' but in real social spaces, it carries high situational stakes, especially when public *chemyeon* (face) is on the line. If you misapply it to a massive, splashing flood instead of a slender trickle, you sound like a textbook robot rather than someone living in the humid, sticky reality of a Korean summer.
◆ Stringy Texture (Food) — While textbooks teach you this word for crying or liquid leaks, food-obsessed Seoulites use it at the pocha or late-night delivery box to describe the absolute climax of a meal: the cheese pull. When you lift a slice of hot potato pizza or break apart a fresh tteokbokki plate and the melted mozzarella refuses to break, stretching into long, glossy threads, *주르륵* is the exact onomatopoeia that pops out. If you misuse it in polite dining settings—say, describing an expensive course meal with this playful, bouncy sound—you’ll sound like a toddler who hasn't mastered table manners, instantly shattering any *체면* (face) you tried to maintain in front of older colleagues.
◆ Liquid Spillage and Leakage — Natives reach for 주르륵 when a thin, focused stream of liquid—be it an iced Americano condensation drop sliding down a plastic cup in a stifling Seoul subway, or soy sauce tracing a tragic path down your white shirt at a company dinner—refuses to just drip and instead makes a run for it. Textbooks often treat this as a dry, clinical onomatopoeia for 'leaking,' but in real social spaces, it carries high situational stakes, especially when public *chemyeon* (face) is on the line. If you misapply it to a massive, splashing flood instead of a slender trickle, you sound like a textbook robot rather than someone living in the humid, sticky reality of a Korean summer.
◆ Stringy Texture (Food) — While textbooks teach you this word for crying or liquid leaks, food-obsessed Seoulites use it at the pocha or late-night delivery box to describe the absolute climax of a meal: the cheese pull. When you lift a slice of hot potato pizza or break apart a fresh tteokbokki plate and the melted mozzarella refuses to break, stretching into long, glossy threads, *주르륵* is the exact onomatopoeia that pops out. If you misuse it in polite dining settings—say, describing an expensive course meal with this playful, bouncy sound—you’ll sound like a toddler who hasn't mastered table manners, instantly shattering any *체면* (face) you tried to maintain in front of older colleagues.
How it's actually used
- 슬픈 영화를 보는데 눈물이 주르륵 흘러내렸다.
seulpeun yeongehareul boneunde nunmuri jureureuk heulleonaeryeotda.
While watching a sad movie, tears streamed down continuously.
💡 Describes continuous, smooth fluid flow like tears or rain. - 창밖을 보는데 빗물이 유리창을 타고 주르륵 흘렀다.
changbakkeul boneunde binmuri yurichangeul tago jureureuk heulleotda.
Looking out the window, rainwater was sliding down the glass pane in a stream.
💡 Great for describing rain on windows. - 창밖을 보는데 빗물이 주르륵 흘러내렸다.
changbakkeul boneunde bitmuri jureureuk heulleonaeryeotda.
As I looked out the window, rainwater streamed continuously down the glass.
💡 Used for continuous liquid flow like rain or tears.
Related words in Impacts & Actions
뚝뚝 ttuk-ttuk삐걱삐걱 ppi-geok-ppi-geok딸깍 ttal-kkak휙 hwik스윽 seu-euk