Link Centre Dictionary

puke

UK/pjuːk/ US/ˈpjuk/ fairly common slang us
noun (2) verb (1)

noun

1.

a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible

  • “only a rotter would do that”
  • “kill the rat”
  • “throw the bum out”
  • “you cowardly little pukes!”
  • “the British call a contemptible person a”
  • “'”
Synonyms
2.

the matter ejected in vomiting

Synonyms

verb

1.

eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth

  • “After drinking too much, the students vomited”
  • “He purged continuously”
  • “The patient regurgitated the food we gave him last night”
Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

Probably imitative; or, alternatively related to Proto-Germanic *pukaną (“to spit, puff”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”). If so, then related to German pfauchen, fauchen (“to hiss, spit”), Dutch spugen (“to spit, spit up”), German spucken (“to spit, puke, throw up”), and Old English spīwan (“to vomit, spit”). More at spew. Attested as early as 1581, first mention is the derivative pukishness (“the tendency to be sick frequently”). In 1600, "to spit up, regurgitate", recorded in the Seven Ages of Man speech in Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Phrases

  • choke and puke
  • fairy puke
  • puke for brains
  • puke one's brains out
  • puke one's guts out
  • puke one's ring
  • puke up
  • unicorn puke

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.