Citations:boak

English citations of boak

Note

NOTE: All citations at this time are related to English dialect(s) used in Scotland & Northern Ireland—and popular art/culture reflecting those communities of usage. In modern works, the word boak (and variants) are added as a touch of Scottish dialect/flavor within an English work—most often by a writer from Scotland or Ireland, but not necessarily. The word boak in English is dialect, not standard usage. The OED characterization is obs. exc. dialect —Obsolete except dialect. (NOTE: {Obsolete}, {Scottish English}, and {Ulster Scotts} are listed as categories at the bottom of the entry.)

18th Century

• 1721, Allan Ramsay, Poems, "Chrift's Kirk on the green":

The Wives Keift up a hideous Yell,

When all thefe Yonkiers yoked;

As fierce as Flags of Fire-flaughts fell,

Frieks to the Fields they flocked:

The Carles with Clubs did other quell

On Breafts, while Blood out boaked;

Sae rudly rang the common Bell,

That a' the Steeple rocked

For Dread that Day.

• 1768, [1], Alexander Ross

The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow (song)

...

She sat and she grat, and she flate, and she flang,

And she threw, and she blew, and she wriggled and wrang,

And she choked and boaked and cry'd like to mang, [2]

...

• 1797, Thomas Bridges, A Burlesque [3]

• And there you might have seen me stuck up, Boaking as if I'd bring my pluck up : And would have given any money For Doctor Hill's balsamic honey.

18th Century Reference Works

• 1794, Scotish (sic) Song, printed for J. Johnson, (see the Glossary) [4]

• Boaked, retched.

19th Century

• 1846, William Watts, A Satirical Rhapsody [5]

  ...; and also to turn to the inspired gibberish called Leviticus and Deuteronomy, where he may read of scabs, issues, running sores, blood, guts, and unclean things, chapter by chapter, to his great delight and edification, without its producing any tendency to squeamishness or boaking; this being all the word of God, is gulped down like barley-sugar, even by novel reading ladies, on the Lord's day!

• 1870, Rev. J.A. Wylie, LL.D.,"Naples:—Beauty of its Bay—Character of its People—Prostestant Schools—Ascent of Vesuvius," The Family Treasury of Sunday Reading, [6]

  Then he showed me the vast stones which, overcharging the stomach of Vesuvius, he had vomited up, with such a boaking that Naples thought the day of judgment had been at hand.

• 1874, W. Thomson-Gregg, Doctor Middleton's daughter, by the author of A desperate character [7]

  Convulsions they called "nerves," and supuration "bealing"; while the dyspeptic "boaked," and anything infection was "smiting."

19th Century Reference Works

• 1855, A Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases: Collected in Whitby and the ... - Page 17 by Francis Kildale Robinson - English language - 1855 - 204 pages

• To BOAK, the effort to vomit, to reach. [8]

20th Century

historical note: 1950s+ - mass media / Television (cultural effect on dialects)

• 1975, Bill Bryden, Benny Lynch: Scenes from a Short Life : a Play[9]

PUGGY: Shite! You don't even pay to get intae the fights!

DINGLEY: All right, Puggy. That's enough. We need Big Peter.

PUGGY: Aye... like the dry boak.

• 1988, "Rab C. Nesbitt" (Scottish sitcom 1988-1999 written by Ian Pattison)

"Got a wee touch of the boak, eh doll?" [10] CITE FROM: 2006 The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English - Page 217 (see 21st Century References)

NOTE: NEWSPAPER ARTICLE (re: end of the series) 1999 - "Success kills off 'McSocrates', Scotland's working-class hero," The Independent, Nov 1, 1999, by Jack O'Sullivan, Scotland Correspondent [11]

But Rab will certainly not disappear. Many of the words in his patter have become part of the national language, words such as bampot or dunderheid, for idiot; boak, which means sick; and swally, a booze-up.

• 1988, The New Statesman [12]

  No word more accurately describes the sense of let-down felt by ordinary' Scots about the new Scottish government– unless it is "gi'ed the dry boak", ...

historical note: 1990s+ - media / World Wide Web (effect on [written] dialects)

• 1996, Jason Ditton, Richard Hammersley, Scottish Cocaine Research Group, A Very Greedy Drug: Cocaine in Context [13]

  ... even if there is nothing there, you'll dry-boak, and then every pore in your body just goes buff ...

• 1996, Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting [14]

  — God sake... god sake... Mr Houston repeated as Mrs Houston boaked and I made a pathetic effort to mop some of the mess back into the sheets.

• 1996, Irvine Welsh, Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance [15]

  We were interrupted by a choking sound as auld Eric boaked thin beer-sick over he table. The humpty cunt with the blazer and badge was right over to him and grabbed up his pint. – That's it! Oot, c'moan! Oot!

• 1997, Alan Warner, Movern Callar [16]

  I was going to boak: I made the window and opened it but most of the sickness hit the window-sill in a heap.

• 1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth: A Novel [17]

  I pull some Kleenex out from my jacket pocket. I always keep them handy for wiping purposes as you never know when some tight arsed cunt at HQ supplies will run short. I hand the boaking mess a couple. — There you go mate.

• 1998, Alan Warner, The Sopranos [18]

  Kay was both hands on a sink, throwing up into it. Spew clods had blocked the plug so's each fresh a-boaking fell an splashed liquids onto her blousey thing an jacket.

• 1999, Ian Rankin, Black and Blue [19]

  He’d skipped breakfast—didn’t like the idea of boaking it back up on the flight.

• 1999, Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum [20]

  I think it was at this moment that Patricia lurched from the table, informing everyone that she was going to be sick and indeed was as good as her word, throwing up before reaching the door (‘Heinrich, fetch a clout — the lassie’s boaked!’).

• 1999, Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum [21]

  On the journey back, we set about consuming our newly-bought confectionery in lieu of lunch and it isn't long before the Ropers' car is drawing up at the side of the road (He's stopping!) for the baby-David to splatter the remains of his banana-yellow vomit all over the grass verge and, two minutes after we're off! for the second time, it's our turn because the lassie's boaking again.

• 1999, Laura Hird, Born Free [22]

  Her dinky breath's making me boak.

• 2000, Ian Rankin, The black book [23]

  He was hungry, too, but the thought of food made him want to boak.

20th Century Reference Works

• 1926, The Dialects of Central Scotland, By James Wilson, Published by Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1926, Original from Oxford University, Digitized Dec 20, 2007, 276 pages

Boak, v. wretch, vomit [24] (NOTE: Before Radio)

• 1999, Concise English-Scots Dictionary By Iseabail Macleod, Scottish National Dictionary Association, Pauline Cairns, Scottish National Dictionary Association, Published by Edinburgh University Press, 1999, →ISBN, 9781902930046, 320 pages [25]

21st Century

historical note 2000s+ "broadband" - global interpersonal communication (effects)

• 2001, Carol Morin, Penniless in Park Lane [26]

  People who reminisce about school make me boak.

• 2001, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar [27]

  It was only saliva I boaked up in the sink.

• 2001, Anne Donovan, Hieroglyphics: And Other Stories [28]

  It would huv gied ye the dry boak tae hear them sookin up tae him, aw sweetie sweetie.

• 2001, Ian Rankin Set in the Darkness: An Inspector Rebus Novel (p 274) [29]

  It was almost enough to tamp down the dry boak.

• 2002, John Maley, Delilah's: Stories from the Closet Till Closing Time [30]

  The boaking bridesmaid was safely back in her seat and singing along with the other girls.

• 2002, Kate Atkinson, Not the End of the World [31]

  ... looking like he was going to boak (rumour had it he was dying), ...

• 2003, Christopher Brookmyre, One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night [32]

  The ones not commenting on it were only refraining because they had their heads over the sides, boaking for all they were worth.

• 2005, John Larkin, The Anarchic Guide to Clinical Medicine [33]

  (footnote #17) Vomiting without vomit. Referred to in Scotland as the dry boak.

• 2007, Peter Kerr, The Mallorca Connection [34]

  ... here in Edinburgh ... The flat of mine was rented out to a bunch of art students before I bought it, so apart from getting rid of the ingrained exotic hum of half-dollar spliffs and carry-out Rubies, which is enough to give you the boak every time you open the front door ...

• 2020, Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain [35]

  The boak groaned inside her.

21st Century Reference Works

• 2005 The Essential Scots Dictionary: Scots-English, English-Scots By Scots Language Dictionaries, Iseabail Macleod, Pauline Cairns, Contributor Constantin V. Boundas, Published by Edinburgh University Press, 2005, →ISBN, 9780748622016, 369 pages [36]

• 2006 The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English - Page 217 by Eric Partridge, Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor - English language - 2006 - 2189 pages -

  1988 "Rab C. Nesbitt" (Scottish sitcom 1988-1999 written by Ian Pattison)

"Got a wee touch of the boak, eh doll?"[37]