puke
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Someone who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pyookIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpjuk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
colloquialambitransitive
To vomit; to throw up; to eject from the stomach.
noun
colloquialcountable
A drug that induces vomiting.
colloquialcountable
A person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible
colloquialcountable
A worthless, despicable person.
A very dark, dull, brownish-red color.
A fine grade of woolen cloth.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (colloquial, ambitransitive) To vomit; to throw up; to eject from the stomach.
Used this way, puke is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Nearby words
- sick , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- barf , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- bum , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
To throw up or vomit.
Eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.