Origin Story
The juri in "juri-reul teulda" is the name of an actual punishment used in the Joseon Dynasty. Written in Chinese characters as jurae (周牢), it was a torture in which a prisoner's legs were bound, two rods were forced between them, and the rods were then twisted in opposite directions from each side, inflicting agonizing pain on the legs. At first the method was to tie the shins with cord and haul on both ends, but over time it grew crueler, shifting to wooden rods wedged in and wrenched apart. In historical dramas, the command barked during an interrogation — "Twist his juri!" — refers to exactly this. Because the punishment was so unbearable, "to twist the juri" gradually outgrew its literal sense and came to mean "to press someone hard or torment them without mercy."
The juri is said to have entered Korea from the Chinese torture hyeopgon (夾棍) and taken root in the late Joseon period. Its brutality bred enough abuse that its use was restricted at various times — and yet its dread lives on, preserved to this day inside an everyday phrase.
Meaning Evolution
How It Is Used
Even after I admitted I was wrong, they kept hounding me as if twisting the juri.
With the exam looming, my parents drive me to study as if twisting the juri.
No matter how urgent it is, badgering people like that — juri-twisting style — only makes the work fall apart.
Related Words
Memory Hook
Recall the historical-drama command "Twist his juri!" The rod wrenching the legs is the key image.
"The rod that once wrenched legs has become a word that presses people."
