Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To try to vomit.
  • intransitive verb To vomit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To reach.
  • To make efforts to vomit.
  • Same as reck.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb obsolete To care for; to heed; to reck.
  • intransitive verb To make an effort to vomit; to strain, as in vomiting.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain, as in vomiting.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit
  • noun an involuntary spasm of ineffectual vomiting
  • verb eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of Middle English rechen, from Old English hrǣcan, to clear the throat, spit, bring up (phlegm).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English *recchen, *rechen, from Old English hrǣċan ("to clear the throat, hawk, spit"), from Proto-Germanic *hrēkijanan (“to clear one's throat”), from Proto-Indo-European *kreg- (“to caw, crow”). Cognate with Icelandic hrækja ("to hawk, spit").

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