▪ I. barf, barfan
dial. ff. bargh, bargham.
▪ II. barf, v. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).
(bɑːf)
[Orig. unknown; perh. echoic.]
intr. To vomit or retch. Occas. trans. (also with up).
| 1960 in Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang. 1963 T. Pynchon V i. 10 Here were your underage Marine barfing in the street, barmaid with a ship's propeller tattooed on each buttock. 1964 Amer. Speech XXXIX. 117 Barf, a verb meaning ‘to vomit’, assignable..to approximately the fall of 1957 or summer of 1958. 1971 D. Heffron Nice Fire & Some Moonpennies vi. 51 He barfed all over shiny Ted's shiny old suit! All this dog-puke all over his shiny lap. 1976 Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ontario) 20 Feb. 6/5 It is a pity that it is necessary to intimidate..people that we Canadians can imagine as prime minister, without barfing our bickies. 1982 Chicago Sun-Times 21 June 31 If you are Princess Diana, you have to stay home and do needlepoint until all danger of barfing in public is past. 1986 Los Angeles Times 29 June v. 5/1 If I go for 10, I'm probably going to have to barf up a lung. |
▪ III. barf, n. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).
(bɑːf)
[f. the vb.]
An attack of vomiting; vomit, sick; also int., a coarse exclamation of disgust.
| 1966 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. I. 153/2 Barf bag, one of those ‘discreet’ little bags tucked into a pouch on the back of an airplane seat. Used in case of air sickness. 1978 J. Wambaugh Black Marble viii. 111 I'd rather be gangbanged by a pack of Dobermans! Oh, barf! 1981 N.Y. Times 6 Sept. 51/1 Whereas the horror film was once spooky, now it is nauseating, measured by the barf, rather than the shiver. 1985 Dirt Bike Mar. 44/3 A word about the stock chain: barf. 1986 Time 26 May 67/3 The locker-room sadists, lubricious cheerleaders and barons of barf who populate the Porky's films. |