1. What does it mean?
무임승차 literally means riding without paying. In group projects and everyday criticism, it means benefiting from other people's effort while contributing little or nothing to the shared task.
Also written or said as muimseungcha
2. The nuance
Not every unequal workload is free-riding; people may have agreed on different roles. The figurative criticism is separate from lawful free public-transport entitlements.
3. Examples
“팀플 무임승차를 막으려고 진행 상황을 같이 기록했어.”
We tracked progress together to prevent free-riding on the group project.
“보이지 않는 준비도 있으니 무임승차라고 단정하기 전에 확인하자.”
Some preparation isn't visible, so let's check before calling it free-riding.
Sources
References support the meaning and usage. Example sentences are written for NoCapWiki.