Dictionary

boak en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /bəʊk/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English bolken (“to belch, vomit”), from Old English bealcian (“to belch, utter, bring up, sputter out, pour out, give forth, emit, come forth”), from Proto-Germanic *belkaną (“to belch”), ultimately imitative. Cognate with Dutch balken and bulken (“to bellow”), German bölken (“to roar”). See also belch.

Meanings

1. (obsolete) To burp.
2. (Scotland) To retch or vomit.
   • She had to keep stopping to spit gobbits of rising boak into sinks and old tea mugs. 2020, Douglas Stewart, Shuggie Bain
   • He’d skipped breakfast—didn’t like the idea of boaking it back up on the flight. 1999, Ian Rankin, Black and Blue
   • I was going to boak: I made the window and opened it but most of the sickness hit the window-sill in a heap. 1997, Alan Warner, Movern Callar
   • — God sake... god sake... Mr Houston repeated as Mrs Houston boaked and I made a pathetic effort to mop some of the mess back into the sheets. 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 94:
   • I think it was at this moment that Patricia lurched from the table, informing everyone that she was going to be sick and indeed was as good as her word, throwing up before reaching the door (‘Heinrich, fetch a clout — the lassie’s boaked!’). 1999, Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Forms

Deriveds

the dry boak

Relateds

bolk