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vomit

v.
A2 Elementary US //ˈvɑmət// UK //vˈɒmɪt// vom·it Archaic Informal

v. to force food or liquid out of your mouth through your stomach. You use this word when you are sick and your body pushes up what you have eaten.

v. to expel the contents of the stomach through the mouth, typically as a reflex to illness or disgust. Transitive in formal contexts (e.g. 'vomit blood'); otherwise intransitive.


SIMPLE

I feel sick and might vomit soon.

CONTEXTUAL

She had to vomit after eating the spoiled fish at lunch.

COMPLEX

The violent motion of the storm caused every passenger to vomit into the plastic bags provided by the crew.

Synonyms
Origin

From Middle English vomiten, from Latin vomitāre (“vomit repeatedly”), frequentative form of vomō (“be sick, vomit”), from Proto-Indo-European *wemh₁- (“to spew, vomit”). Cognate with Old Norse váma (“nausea, malaise”), Old English wemman (“to defile”). More at wem.

Usage

Intransitive in everyday speech; transitive when specifying the substance expelled.

Idioms1 entry

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