bowk

• bolk

From Middle English bolken, bulken, alteration of earlier balken, from Old English bealcan (“to belch; utter”). Compare Dutch bulken (“to roar”), German bölken. More at bolk.

• IPA^(key): /boʊk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -oʊk

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

1. (Geordie) To belch, to burp.
   • 1966, William Mayne, Earthfasts, Peter Smith, published 1989, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN, 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. (UK) To vomit.
   • 2004, Chris Donald, Rude Kids: The Unfeasible Story of Viz‎, HarperCollins, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN:

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

• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “BOWK”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “bowk”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎, archived from the original on 2024-09-05.
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977
• Bill Griffiths, editor (2004), “bowk”, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Northumbria University Press, →ISBN.

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

bowk (uncountable)

1. (Southern Scots) vomit; sick

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

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