龜 gu1, giu1, gung1 or kiu1

龜 could be said as gu1 or tortoise or turtle, giu1 [which I will be blogging today], gung1 and kiu1 [you need to look at your Teochew dictionaries for the last two]

So giu1 - what does giu1 mean?

My new dictionary by Zhang XiaoShan explains there could be three different meanings for giu1 龜

First meaning: to withdraw, to retreat

ziah4 gu1 gai5 tao5 giu1 nang5 ke3  
隻龜個頭龜人去。

the tortoise withdrew its head [in this case it explains it is caused by a person unknown]

How about the Mandarin translation?

那烏龜把頭縮進去。

The Mandarin translation just states the tortoise withdrew its head.

However, do note the difference between our Diosua Uê and Mandarin

We begin the sentence with a measure word [classifier] ziah4 隻 and then the subject which is tortoise gu1 龜 and the verb is placed at the end : giu1ke2 龜去.  The nang5 人 hear just explains the cause, which is not found in the Mandarin sentence.

Second meaning of giu1: giu1cung5 龜存
and it means short of, less than

Let us see how this can be used

daⁿ3 liah8 zab8 bhuang7 ngeng5 cug4lai5 giu1 cung5 zêg8 bhuang7
呾掠十萬銀出來龜存一萬。

said would contribute 100 000 Yuan and is 10 000 short

The Mandarin translation of this sentence, given by ZXS is 

說拿十萬元出來減少辦一萬。

There is not much difference in sentence structure here and I am surprised ZXS does not say gai5bhuang7 and wrote zêg8bhuang7 instead. 

Third meaning of giu1: giu1ke3 龜去

to mean embezzle, misappropriate

here is an example of use:

saⁿ1gai5 cung5 zêg8, no6gai5 i1 giu1ke3

三個存一, 二個伊龜去。

one is left from three; two have been embezzled or misappropriated by him

In Mandarin, ZXS gave this translation: 

三個只剩一個, 兩個被他貪佔了。

So now you have learnt how to say 龜 as giu1.