Dictionary

pukey en · ADJ

Etymology

From puke + -y. Compare German Low German pukig (“sickly, unhealthy, ailing”).

Meanings

1. (informal) Resembling vomit in colour, texture, etc.
   • The walls in this abandoned waiting area were painted a pukey orange, compounding the feeling of queasiness I'd had since breakfast. 2007, Lauren Mechling, Laura Moser, Foreign Exposure: The Social Climber Abroad:
2. (informal) Inclined to vomit; sick.
   • His heart was thumping harder than ever, and it was impossible to tell if the sickish, pukey feeling deep down in his belly was relief or terror. 1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger:
   • There's no way he'd allow a dog on his couch or on his 500-thread-count sheets, let alone a pukey baby. 2005, Rebecca Eckler, Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-be:
3. (informal) Vile; contemptible.
   • […] it's nothing more than a pukey little garrison town in the middle of nowhere. 2007, Paul Auster, Travels in the Scriptorium:
   • Biocky, unimaginative, and the pukey colour scheme has you searching out those Blues Brothers sun-glasses you bought on holiday last year, just before they went out of fashion. 1992 March, Ian Osborne, “Skull and Crossbones”, in Phil King, editor, Zzap!64, Ludlow, Shropshire: Europress Impact Ltd, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 48–49:
   • He called Mikkel a pukey little faggot. I'll kick him again when I can get at him. 2003, Guy Davenport, The Death of Picasso:

Forms

Translations (2)

de mitgenommen (vile) · de heruntergekommen (vile)