khrab خرب

Tunisian Derja · verb

“khrab” (خرب) is a verb in Tunisian Derja meaning to ruin, destroy, wreck.

Meanings

1. to ruin, destroy, wreck
2. to spoil (a situation, a matter)

Usage

Khrab (present yakhrab or yokhrob) means to destroy or damage something, whether an object, a house or a place. Figuratively, it means to spoil a situation: khrab el-9adhiya, "he ruined everything". The intensive form kharrab is very common, with the same meaning. The passive tkharrab is also frequent: "to be in ruins, to be damaged". For a broken-down appliance, one says rather tkasser or tal. The noun kharba, plural khrab, refers to a ruin or an abandoned building.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khrab” but also “5rab”, “kharab”, “khreb” and “kharreb”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.

Type “khrab” on the Arabic keyboard

In Moroccan Darija

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “to damage, destroy, wreck”; “to sabotage, spoil (with 3la)”: khrreb in Moroccan.