English

Alternative forms

• bolk

Verb

bowk ‎(third-person singular simple present bowks, present participle bowkin, simple past and past participle bowked)

1. (Geordie) To belch, to burp.
   • 1966, William Mayne, Earthfasts, Peter Smith (1989), ISBN 9780844664309, page 37:

     "That made me bowk," he said; and he bowked again. He took another swig with caution, and gave the bottle to David, and they swigged at it in turn.

   • 1997, Brian P. Martin, Tales of the Old Countrywomen, David & Charles (1997), ISBN 9780715303658, page 143:

     If this man did not feed the mill carefully and regularly it bowked with "indigestion" and this slowed everything up.

   • 2008, Sid Waddell, Taak of the Toon: How to Speak Geordie, HarperCollins (2008), ISBN 9780007247820, page 92:

     He claimed that meat or cheese made you 'bowk' (belch) and get stomach cramps — the last thing you need 'yakking' (using a pick) coal for eight tough hours in a two-foot 'cavil' (job area).

2. (Britain) To vomit.
   • 2004, Chris Donald, Rude Kids: The Unfeasible Story of Viz, HarperCollins (2004), ISBN 9780007190966, page 275:

     At that point another of my guests, a highly respected Newcastle art gallery owner by the name of Rashida, bowked up all over the floor behind me.

   • 2009, Blythe Gifford, In the Master's Bed, Harlequin (2009), ISBN 9780373295623, page 64:

     'Take yourself to bed then. And don't whine to me tomorrow about how you bowked your guts out all night.'

   • 2010, Mike Harper, Little Mickey H: A Norbury Lad, AuthorHouse (2010), ISBN 9781449015565, page 107:

     Firstly, aged perhaps five or six after polishing off a banana and a slice of bread and butter in the back room at tea time, taking my plate out to the kitchen, I managed to make it only as far as the spin dryer in the hall before bowking richly over the lino.

   • 2011, Erica Bell, The Voyage of the Shuckenoor, Interactive Publications (2011), ISBN 9781921869549, unnumbered page:

     Misima bowked beside him, bent over double. They made twin streams of yellow bile in the heather.

References

• The New Geordie Dictionary, Frank Graham, 1987, ISBN 0946928118
• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin,
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977
• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, ISBN 1904794165

Scots

Etymology

From Old Scots bolk ‎(“to belch”). Cognate with Geordie bowk and General Scots boak (but does not have quite the same meaning).

Noun

bowk ‎(uncountable)

1. (South Scots) vomit; sick

Verb

bowk ‎(third-person singular present bowks, present participle bowkin, past bowkt, past participle bowkt)

1. (South Scots) to vomit; to throw up.