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What does “이를 악물다” mean in Korean?

이를 악물다 literally means to bite down hard and clench your teeth — the involuntary flinch before pain. Koreans use it for the mental version: gritting your teeth and refusing to quit through a stretch of hardship. It lands heavier than the English “grit your teeth,” implying you swallowed the frustration, endured, and came out tougher. You don’t just brace yourself — you steel yourself.

The verb pairs 악- (a fierce, desperate-effort intensifier, the same one in 악쓰다 “to scream with all your might”) with 물다 “to bite,” so the whole thing is roughly “to bite down with everything you’ve got.” In the clip, an idol comforting eliminated audition contestants recalls how his own debut was delayed six years by a puberty voice change (변성기); watching label-mates debut before him, he says that painful stretch 이를 악물게 했다 — “made me clench my teeth harder” — and pushed him toward finally debuting. A common encouragement built on it: 이를 악물고 버티다, to hang on by sheer will.