▪ I. † bolk, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 4–6 bolke, 5 bulk, 5–6 bulke, 6 bolk, bolck, balk, balck, (Sc.) bok; (north.) 6–8 boke, bock, 7– boak, bouk, bowk.
[ME. bolk-en, cogn. w. mod.G. bolken, bölken ‘to roar, bawl’, and Du. bulken ‘to bellow’; f. same root as belch; pointing to an OTeut. ablaut series balkan, bęlkan, bolkan; though perhaps of later formation.]
1. intr. To eructate; = belch 1.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. II. 195 Somme þat bolked neuere. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 43 Bolkyn, ructo, eructo. 1552 Huloet, Belke, or bolke, or breake wynde vpwarde. 1674 Ray N.C. Wds. 6 To boke..to Belch. Lincoln. |
2. to bolk out (trans.): to give vent to, ejaculate, vociferate; = belch 2.
| 1382 Wyclif Ps. xviii. [xix.] 3 Dai to the dai bolketh [1388 tellith] out woord. ― Matt. xiii. 35, I shal bolke out, or telle oute, hid thingus. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius vii. 4 Rashenes of wordes bulked out. |
3. trans. To emit (wind) by belching; = belch 3.
| a 1535 More Wks. 1360 Balk out y⊇ stinking sauor of thy rauenous surfeting. 1616 T. Adams Soul's Sickn. Wks. 1861 I. 500 His own commendation rumbles within him, till he hath bulked it out; and the air of it is unsavoury. |
4. intr. To vomit; to retch, or make efforts as in vomiting. Still dial.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clxxxv. (1495) 726 The dronklew mannys stomak bolkyth. c 1480 Babees Bk. (1868) 18 Bulk not as a beene were yn þi throte. 1674 Ray N.C. Wds. 6 Boke, to Nauseate, to be ready to vomit, also to Belch. 1764 T. Bridges Homer Travest. (1797) II. 369 Boaking as if I'd bring my pluck up. 1832 Blackw. Mag. XXXII. 647 He began to strain and to bock. 1855 Whitby Gloss., To Boak, the effort to vomit, to reach. |
b. trans. Also with up. dial.
| 1790 A. Wilson Callamp. Elegy Poet. Wks. 105 His vera guts he's bockan In blude this day. 1863 Robson Bards of Tyne 433 Whey, she had bowk't the sma' beer up. |
5. fig. and transf. To emit as in vomiting, to eject (as a volcano).
| 1513 Douglas æneis iii. viii. 136 It..will..Furth bok the bowalis..of the hill. 1561 J. Studley Seneca's Medea (1581) 128 ætna bolking stifling flames and dusky vapours up. 1787 Burns Winter Nt., Burns..thro' the mining outlet boked, Down headlong hurl. |
6. intr. To heave or throb like a confined gas or fluid. to bolk up: to ‘rise’ in the stomach.
| 1561 Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 37 a, The meate bulketh up agayne. a 1679 T. Goodwin Wks. (1861) III. 424 Humours..may stir and boake in the stomach, when yet they come not up, nor prevail unto vomiting. |
7. intr. To gush, flow in gulps.
| a 1550 Christis Kirke Gr. xxi, Blude at breastis out bokkit. 1541 Barnes Wks. (1573) 251/2 Theyr plenteous wine presses and their full sellers bolkyng from thys vnto that. a 1600 Rob. Hood (Ritson) i. iii. 131 At his mouth came bocking out The blood of a good vain. |
▪ II. † bolk, n. Obs.
Also 7– bock.
[f. prec. vb.]
An eructation, a belch.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 397 He bygan benedicite with a bolke. 1697 W. Cleland Poems 104 (Jam.) When he return'd he got it ov'r Without a host, a bock, or glour. 1859 Autobiog. Beggar Boy 150 To relieve himself of the dry bock. |
▪ III. bolk
obs. form of bulk.