toss your cookies

Jack-o-lantern vomiting pumpkin seeds and pulp photo credit: "Barfing pumpkin" by narcosislabs (CC-BY-2.0) Image cropped

Definition: (verb phrase) vomit

Example: Arnold lost the drinking contest when he tossed his cookies on his opponent.

Quote:

"I was totally nervous, could barely do my lines and they were taking bets on when I was going to toss my cookies. That never happened. Once I got into the sex, I totally dug that."
- Adult film star Brittany O'Connell on making her first porno movie

There are a huge number of synonyms for this week’s entry – far more than would fit into this newsletter! Toss your cookies is descriptive, as are lose your lunch, blow doughnuts and spew chunks.

The standard, of course, is puke. Though now considered slang, it’s such a classic that you can find it in Shakespeare’s As You Like It (“the infant, mewling and puking in his nurse’s arms…”)

Though the history of puke is uncertain, the word might have come from the sound of puking. However, what that sounds like is a matter of debate. For some, it sounds like yak or barf. Others believe ralph and earl, which are also men’s names, come closer. Another sound-alike is buick, and if you want added punch, you can use them together: “I went on a drive with Ralph and Earl in the Buick.”

A. C. Kemp | September 25, 2003


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