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
It’s going to be a long, hot summer for getting COVID, the measles, and milk-borne puke diseases!
From Slate ● Apr. 26, 2025
In Season 2, that was an episode titled "Milkmaids" which centered on people quite literally eating pus and made me also quite literally puke.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2024
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
We fly down the slope, and the nerves in my stomach flutter up into my throat, like I’m about to puke.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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
A scene or two later, the woman has come down with a sudden case of the pukes.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2019
“We were talking last night about how everything the baby does — even if it pukes everywhere — you say, ‘Good job!’”
From New York Times ● Jan. 2, 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
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
“Even a couple days after, he grabbed his head and said it was too full of thoughts. And then he puked everywhere.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2023
During the “free fall,” I did a very-not-me, mini fist bump to the cameraman and then nearly puked when the parachute opened.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2022
That’s when I caught a case of severe norovirus and puked so hard that my water broke.
From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2022
I almost puked when I saw it in her Calls Made list: my father’s cell number.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
She asks her daughter to call her, even if she is "puking up every warning that I gave you," and asks her to "never let shame stop you reaching for your phone".
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
The sellers are winners taking profits at prices of $90,000-plus, not losers puking at the bottom.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 17, 2025
“They are weird puking birds with colorful mullets. What’s not to love here?”
From Salon ● Nov. 15, 2023
Oliver described pūteketeke, which number less than 1,000 in New Zealand and are also known as the Australasian crested grebe, as “weird, puking birds with colorful mullets.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
I followed the smell down the dark streets, and when I saw where the smoke was coming from, I felt like puking.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
