Apparently onomatopoeic and believed to have first appeared in comic strips. Compare gag (“to choke; to retch”) and hack (“to cough noisily”).
The "cocaine" and "meth" senses apparently comes from the fact that snorting the drugs often activates a person's gag reflex.
Meanings
(qualifier:often repeated several times) A sharp, sudden sound from someone's throat while they're coughing, vomiting, gagging, etc.
Gravity does the rest as Jane's vomit spills back into her trachea. Guck-guck-^([sic]) GACK...guck-gack....GACK! GACK!...GACK! 2016 October, Bryan Cranston, quoting John Shiban, Breaking Bad #212 "Title TBD" Writer's Draft, September 17, 2008, quoted in Life in Parts, Scribner, →ISBN, page 204:
Sports was immediately consigned to a recycle pile where it was handy in case she heard the unmistakable gack-gack-gack machine-gun regurgitation sound of Midnight Louie about to deposit a hairball on some particularly cherished piece of paper or furniture. 1999 April, Carole Nelson Douglas, “Newsmaker, Heartbreaker”, in Cat in an Indigo Mood', Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 198:
With loud pops, a cloud of blue smoke exploded from the beetle's behind. A steaming spray that stunk worse than burning rubber shot into the air. "Ack!" gagged Andrew. "Gack! Gack! Gack!" coughed Judy. 2006, J. C. Greenburg, Andrew Lost in the Garbage, 1st edition, Random House Children's Books, →ISBN, page 64:
An expression of disgust or disapproval.
The family wanted me to try marmite, which is some sort of dark brown yeast extract that many Kiwis seem to enjoy. […] The family asked me to try it saying that it "tastes better than it smells." They were completely wrong. Gack! No more marmite for this boy. a. 2004, Mister Moose [pseudonym], “Arriving in New Zealand: My First Experiences in This Far Off Land”, in MisterMoose.org, archived from the original on 10 Apr 2004:
An expression of trepidation.
Gack! Me too! I spent the whole decade of my 20s too afraid to try even online dating and I just focused on my career and doing things that interested me, and I feel SO AFRAID that if I return to focusing on my life that another decade will go by before I know it and I'll still be single and childless. 2012 September 20, Brandylion [pseudonym], “After A Year And A Half – NOW You Find Out He Doesn’t Want A Serious Relationship – EVER!”, in Have The Relationship You Want, archived from the original on 10 Sep 2022, Comments:
“Gack,” said Judith. “I don’t remember that. I wish you hadn’t. […]” 1995 March, Mary Daheim, Major Vices, Avon Books, →ISBN, page 112:
Apparently onomatopoeic and believed to have first appeared in comic strips. Compare gag (“to choke; to retch”) and hack (“to cough noisily”).
The "cocaine" and "meth" senses apparently comes from the fact that snorting the drugs often activates a person's gag reflex.
Meanings
(slang, uncountable) Crystal meth.
(slang, uncountable) Powder cocaine.
Getting gilled on gack without the precious reward of a drink on top, though, really sucked. Alcohol was my great love. Cocaine was just something I did to keep my altitude up […] 2009 March, Christopher John Campion, Escape from Bellevue: A Dive Bar Odyssey, Gotham Books, →ISBN, page 195:
Robbie dug his hand in and pulled out a loose kilo of cocaine. […] Robbie held up a kilo for me to hold, but there was no way I was going to touch one single package. The last thing I wanted were my fingerprints on that gack […] 2017, Roman Caribe [pseudonym], Robert Cea, “Bait and Switch”, in Confidential Source Ninety-Six, Hachette Books, →ISBN:
—What, an he deals gack on the side? / —Aye, yeh. Dead easy for him to get a hold of, innit? / —How's that, well? / —Every fuckin ozzy's gorra supply of charlie, Dar. Skag n all. Best fuckin painkillers goin, lar. 2005, Niall Griffiths, Wreckage, Vintage, published 2006, →ISBN, page 217:
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
gak
alternative
lexicographic
Translations (4)
fi kakistaa (to cough something up) · fi kakoa (to cough something up) · fi kakoa (to make a 'gack' noise) · fi kakistella (to make a 'gack' noise)
Apparently onomatopoeic and believed to have first appeared in comic strips. Compare gag (“to choke; to retch”) and hack (“to cough noisily”).
The "cocaine" and "meth" senses apparently comes from the fact that snorting the drugs often activates a person's gag reflex.
Meanings
(intransitive) To make a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat, such as before vomiting or while coughing, gagging, etc.
I slipped the punch, dropped the paper, and closed my right hand around his throat. I backed him into his desk and pushed him onto his back. […] He rubbed his throat, gacked like a cat spitting up a hair ball. 1999, Dennis Lehane, Payers for Rain, 1st edition, New York: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, page 31:
Then we hear the unmistakable gacking of a dog about to puke. Ooah. Ooah. Ooaah... And puke Loki does, right under the coffee table. 2015, Kristan Higgins, If You Only Knew, Harlequin Books, →ISBN, page 248:
(intransitive) To do something that causes a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat. ▸ To vomit, throw up.
I mean, if cheese could make me gack, you know that poop snake, coiled around that worthless pen, wasn't going to calm my jumpy stomach down. 1996, Pat Pollari, Barf-o-Rama: The Legend of Bigfart, Transworld Books, published 1997, →ISBN, page 6:
(transitive) To do something that causes a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat. ▸ To cough something up.
It reminded me of the time Willy tried to get a whole hamburger in his mouth on a bet. […] he almost choked to death before we figured out how to do the Heimlich maneuver on him. […] finally Pete Honer said, "He's turning blue," and we all just grabbed something and squeezed and he gacked it up and out. Pickles and all. 2006, Gary Paulsen, The Amazing Life of Birds, 1st edition, Wendy Lam Books, →ISBN, page 12:
(intransitive) To do something that causes a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat. ▸ To choke (be unable to breathe because of obstruction of the windpipe)
[…] Chutsky came around and kicked the other one in the throat, so hard I could hear it crack, and he went over backward making gacking noises and clutching at his windpipe.u 2010, Jeff Lindsay, Dexter is Delicious, Orion Books, →ISBN, page 340:
(intransitive) To do something that causes a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat. ▸ To choke (experience tightness in one's throat as a result of strong emotion)
My throat made some gacking noises, though. No, no crying! Stiff lip, stiff lip, stiff lip—you got an interview! I stood in the kitchen, shaking and swallowing everything down. 2010, Yxta Maya Murray, The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Kidnapped, Penguin Group, →ISBN, page 178:
Apparently onomatopoeic. Compare German gack (“call of a hen”), German gackern (“(of a chicken) to loudly and repetitive cry”), and Dutch gakken (“(of a goose) to honk”).
Comparison to more terms
Pokorny compared German gackern to words including English gaggle, Latvian gâgát (“cry like a goose”), Russian gogotátь (gogotátʹ, “(of geese) cackle; laugh loudly”), Old Norse gaga (“mock, ridicule”), and Albanian gogësínj (“yawn, burp”), among others. Pokorny considered common origin or separate innovation both as possibilities to explain the similarities.
Meanings
The sound of a bird's call in response to disturbance.
k’eikw’w, Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla, a cliff-nesting gull and an important clan symbol or ‘totem’. […] The bird is described as a smaller version or relative of the ‘seagull’, a colonial cliff-nesting species that when disturbed forms swirling masses of birds overhead which call ‘gack, gack, gack, gack’. 2010, Eugene S. Hunn, Thomas F. Thornton, “Tlingit Birds: An Annotated List with a Statistical Comparative Analysis”, in Sonia Tidemann, Andrew Gosler, editors, Ethno-Ornithology: Birds, Indigenous Peoples, Culture and Society, Earthscan, →ISBN, pages 195—196:
It was a big downy chick, about twenty-three days old. […] Steve shot ptargmigan for it, and every time it ate or saw Steve it would scream, Gack gack gack gack, […] 2009, Rachel Dickinson, Falconer on the Edge, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 97&endash;98:
Apparently onomatopoeic. Compare German gack (“call of a hen”), German gackern (“(of a chicken) to loudly and repetitive cry”), and Dutch gakken (“(of a goose) to honk”).
Comparison to more terms
Pokorny compared German gackern to words including English gaggle, Latvian gâgát (“cry like a goose”), Russian gogotátь (gogotátʹ, “(of geese) cackle; laugh loudly”), Old Norse gaga (“mock, ridicule”), and Albanian gogësínj (“yawn, burp”), among others. Pokorny considered common origin or separate innovation both as possibilities to explain the similarities.
Meanings
(of a bird) To call in response to disturbance.
During a disturbance the young run to the water and dive from fear, […] On other occasions the adults swim or walk about, incessantly gacking. 1977, Jon Fjeldså, Guide to the Young of European Precocial Birds, →ISBN, page 59: