yuck

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English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Perhaps imitative. Akin to Dutch jak (“disgusting”). First appeared in the 1960s. Compare also Scots yeuk (“anything that disgusts”), Middle English yuke (“an itchy skin disease”).

Interjection

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yuck

  1. Uttered to indicate disgust usually toward an objectionable taste or odour. [from 1966]
    Antonym: yum
    Yuck! This peanut butter is disgusting!
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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yuck (uncountable)

  1. (uncountable) Something disgusting.
    • 2003 December 8, The New Yorker:
      I fetched an orange from a basket and peeled it […] “Make sure you peel as much of the yuck off as possible,” she said. “I hate the yuck."
  2. (derogatory, informal) A general insult.

Verb

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yuck (third-person singular simple present yucks, present participle yucking, simple past and past participle yucked)

  1. To say "yuck"; to express disgust.
    • 1994, Linda Shands, A Time to Keep, page 37:
      I yucked and yicked and spit in the dirt .
    • 1997, Walter Mosley, Gone Fishin': An Easy Rawlins Novel, page 79:
      Dom was yucking and yelling. He was clumsy and barely got as many with two hands as Mouse did with one.
    • 2015, Alan Pinkett, Utta Drivel Too, page 47:
      He was yucking loudly at the plate in front of him.
    • 2015, Paulette, Echoes of Color, page 511:
      I shall tell the other one which cream to apply first and then the steps in order, but no yucking will I tolerate.
    • 2016, Matthew Ball, Thomas Crofts, Angela Dwyer, Queering Criminology:
      We are not interested in yucking anyone's yum or shaming anyone who has fantasies or fetishes about ideas of this reallife violence.
    • 2016, Margaret Court, Margaret Court: The Autobiography:
      We collected birds' eggs, gingerly plucking them from nests high in the trees and holding the eggs in our mouths as we used both hands to climb back down; sometimes they'd crack and the bitter taste of the contents would have us yucking for hours.
  2. To vomit or gag;
    • 1987, Martyn Godfrey, Sandra Scott, It Isn't Easy Being Ms Teeny Wonderful, page 130:
      She thought it was overpoweringly gross and yucked great dribbles over the front of her lace blouse .
    • 2011, Gregory Dark, Susie and the Snow-it-alls, page 138:
      And she yucked. She forced herself to eat again. And again she yucked.
    • 2021, Glenn Rolfe, August's Eyes:
      As he yucked his guts up mere feet from the little passageway, all of John's shame came crumbling down upon him.
  3. (euphemistic) fuck.
    • 2004, Michael Atkinson, Life Is Amazing, page 365:
      I can see these pro-lifer's screams of “Stop killing the foetus” turn to “I ain't taking no mother yucking nickker home to my mother yucking house."
    • 2009, Joan Hiatt Harlow, Secret of the Night Ponies, page 107:
      But when I was out there, I yucked up everything.
    • 2010, Don L. Clark, Magy la Magnifica, page 28:
      Boy, you sure as hell yucked this up.

Etymology 2

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Imitative

Noun

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yuck (plural yucks)

  1. The sound made by a whole-hearted laugh.
    • 2000 March 13, The New Yorker:
      Given this insecurity, the creators of “The Simpsons” took an extraordinary risk: they decided not to use a laugh track. On almost all other sitcoms, dialogue was interrupted repeatedly by crescendos of phony guffaws (or by the electronically enhanced laughter of live audiences), creating the unreal ebb and flow of sitcom conversation, in which a typical character’s initial reaction to an ostensibly humorous remark could only be to smile archly or look around while waiting for the yucks to die down.

Verb

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yuck (third-person singular simple present yucks, present participle yucking, simple past and past participle yucked)

  1. (often followed by "up") To laugh or joke.
    • 2006, Joseph George Hayes, A Map of the Harbor Islands, page 299:
      And I so miss the laughs we yucked when I used to point out to you the irony of people's names in town .
    • 2006, Dan Bomkamp, Thanks Thunderfoot, page 99:
      His buddies yucked and laughed as they motored away.
    • 2014, Caroline Adderson, Jasper John Dooley: NOT in Love:
      Ori wiped his cheek and yucked again.
    • 2018, Sarah Sparrow, A Guide for Murdered Children, page 130:
      The whole room yucked and tittered.

See also

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Etymology 3

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

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yuck (third-person singular simple present yucks, present participle yucking, simple past and past participle yucked)

  1. To yank or grab.
    • 1886, English Dialect Society, Publications - Volume 25, page 171:
      Briggs yucked the mare about, and she stood straight up seven or eight times.
    • 1945, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch - Volume 209, page 393:
      I took it bad when it were lifted and yucked into a truck and shifted
    • (Can we date this quote?), M. J. King, My Big Brother's Best Friend, page 127:
      Bey don't leave me bey, f***k that other nigga mjay and let me talk to you (I yucked my hand away and kept on walking)

Etymology 4

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Verb

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yuck (third-person singular simple present yucks, present participle yucking, simple past and past participle yucked)

  1. Alternative form of yawk (“to inflict a violent impact upon”)

Etymology 5

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Noun

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yuck (plural yucks)

  1. (US, military, slang) Synonym of yearling (“a sophomore at West Point military academy”)
    • 2008, United States Military Academy. Association of Graduates, Assembly (volume 67, issues 1-4, page 126)
      Amy tells us that her husband, Jim Nelson, is deployed to Afghanistan […] as a nuclear operations officer — a result of graduating from the Naval Postgraduate School in December 2007 with a master's in Applied Physics. I guess I should have been looking for Jim to partner up with for physics help as a Yuck!

See also

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Scots

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Etymology

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Presumably of the same roots as English chuck, itself from Anglo-Norman choque (compare modern Norman chouque), from Gaulish *śokka (compare Breton soc'h (“thick”), Old Irish tócht (“part, piece”).

Verb

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yuck (third-person singular simple present yuck, present participle yuckin, simple past yuckit, past participle yuckit)

  1. to chuck, to throw
    A yuckit it inti the bucket. ― I chucked it into the bucket

Noun

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yuck (plural yucks)

  1. a throw
  2. a small stone that can be thrown
    Ye cin finnd yucks be the river.
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)
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