puke
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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pukes,
present (3rd person singular)
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puked,
past participle, past
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puking
present participle
noun
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vomit.
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any food or drink that is repulsive.
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anything or anyone that is contemptible or worthless.
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verb
noun
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the act of vomiting
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the matter vomited
Usage
What does puke mean? Puke is one of the many informal ways to refer to vomit.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pukesimple
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pukessimple
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have pukedperfect
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has pukedperfect
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am pukingprogressive
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are pukingprogressive
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is pukingprogressive
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have been pukingperfect progressive
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has been pukingperfect progressive
Past
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pukedsimple
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had pukedperfect
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was pukingprogressive
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were pukingprogressive
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had been pukingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of puke
First recorded in 1590–1600; perhaps imitative of the sound
Vocabulary lists containing puke
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But this summer is going to give, let’s puke.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025
I was telling my caddie Austin that I felt pretty calm coming down the stretch and he said he was about to puke on the 18th tee!
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2024
Cleaning up after the birds is an awful job: “Two to 3 inches of guano, these birds puke a lot, you get your flies, maggots — it makes you gag,” McFadden said.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 21, 2024
Was the jury room drowning in rivers of puke?
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2023
Benny has chunks of wet puke all down the front of his clothes.
From "Free Lunch" by Rex Ogle
The puteketeke, a bird that pukes, grunts, growls and has bizarre mating rituals, won New Zealand’s bird of the century title in a competition where American-British comedian John Oliver's involvement has ruffled some local feathers.
From Reuters ● Nov. 20, 2023
She aspires to be a newscaster but is so camera shy she spectacularly pukes when the red light goes on.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 1, 2023
She quickly passes out again when she refuses to swallow this bizarre blue glowing ball that John pukes into her mouth—it’s presumably the fake-scientific thing that transforms her into a part-fish like him.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2021
A scene or two later, the woman has come down with a sudden case of the pukes.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2019
I rake a mountain into the front yard and there are still more, like the earth pukes up leaf gunk when I’m not looking.
From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
“I about puked when I saw number 13,” Street said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026
Nobody puked during one of the slasher films, and the eccentric local we refer to as “the velvet suit guy” behaved himself, for the most part.
From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2024
That’s when I caught a case of severe norovirus and puked so hard that my water broke.
From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2022
“Last time I ate it, I puked my guts out.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2021
And this time he even went down on one knee and puked, right off the pier, into the water.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
Filled with terms like gamma and vol puking, market dispatches from the strategist the FT once described as a “meat-powered market mystic” do not make for easy reading.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 14, 2025
Their top red-zone target was limited, and their defensive leader, Kamari Ramsey, was up all night puking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2025
During their first conversation another lady starts puking everywhere.
From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2024
"They are weird puking birds with colourful mullets. What's not to love here?"
From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2023
I heard footsteps thunder, and soon saw my brother and sisters staggering through the door, gasping for air and puking all over the place.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
