gack
Part of speech: intj
verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Apparently onomatopoeic and believed to have first appeared in comic strips. Compare gag (“to choke; to retch”) and hack (“to cough noisily”).
The "cocaine" and "meth" senses apparently comes from the fact that snorting the drugs often activates a person's gag reflex.
Inflected forms:
form: gak
pos: intj
tags: alternative
form: gacks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: gacking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: gacked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: gacked
pos: verb
tags: past
form: gak
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: gak
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: A sharp, sudden sound from someone's throat while they're coughing, vomiting, gagging, etc.
pos: intj
examples: Sports was immediately consigned to a recycle pile where it was handy in case she heard the unmistakable gack-gack-gack machine-gun regurgitation sound of Midnight Louie about to deposit a hairball on some particularly cherished piece of paper or furniture.
With loud pops, a cloud of blue smoke exploded from the beetle's behind. A steaming spray that stunk worse than burning rubber shot into the air. "Ack!" gagged Andrew. "Gack! Gack! Gack!" coughed Judy.
Gravity does the rest as Jane's vomit spills back into her trachea. Guck-guck-^([sic]) GACK...guck-gack....GACK! GACK!...GACK!
gloss: An expression of disgust or disapproval.
pos: intj
examples: The family wanted me to try marmite, which is some sort of dark brown yeast extract that many Kiwis seem to enjoy. […] The family asked me to try it saying that it "tastes better than it smells." They were completely wrong. Gack! No more marmite for this boy.
gloss: An expression of trepidation.
pos: intj
examples: “Gack,” said Judith. “I don’t remember that. I wish you hadn’t. […]”
Gack! Me too! I spent the whole decade of my 20s too afraid to try even online dating and I just focused on my career and doing things that interested me, and I feel SO AFRAID that if I return to focusing on my life that another decade will go by before I know it and I'll still be single and childless.
gloss: To make a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat, such as before vomiting or while coughing, gagging, etc.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I slipped the punch, dropped the paper, and closed my right hand around his throat. I backed him into his desk and pushed him onto his back. […] He rubbed his throat, gacked like a cat spitting up a hair ball.
Then we hear the unmistakable gacking of a dog about to puke. Ooah. Ooah. Ooaah... And puke Loki does, right under the coffee table.
gloss: To do something that causes a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I mean, if cheese could make me gack, you know that poop snake, coiled around that worthless pen, wasn't going to calm my jumpy stomach down.
gloss: To do something that causes a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: It reminded me of the time Willy tried to get a whole hamburger in his mouth on a bet. […] he almost choked to death before we figured out how to do the Heimlich maneuver on him. […] finally Pete Honer said, "He's turning blue," and we all just grabbed something and squeezed and he gacked it up and out. Pickles and all.
gloss: To do something that causes a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: […] Chutsky came around and kicked the other one in the throat, so hard I could hear it crack, and he went over backward making gacking noises and clutching at his windpipe.u
gloss: To do something that causes a sharp, sudden sound in one's throat.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: My throat made some gacking noises, though. No, no crying! Stiff lip, stiff lip, stiff lip—you got an interview! I stood in the kitchen, shaking and swallowing everything down.
gloss: Crystal meth.
pos: noun
tags: slang
uncountable
gloss: Powder cocaine.
pos: noun
tags: slang
uncountable
examples: —What, an he deals gack on the side? / —Aye, yeh. Dead easy for him to get a hold of, innit? / —How's that, well? / —Every fuckin ozzy's gorra supply of charlie, Dar. Skag n all. Best fuckin painkillers goin, lar.
Getting gilled on gack without the precious reward of a drink on top, though, really sucked. Alcohol was my great love. Cocaine was just something I did to keep my altitude up […]
Robbie dug his hand in and pulled out a loose kilo of cocaine. […] Robbie held up a kilo for me to hold, but there was no way I was going to touch one single package. The last thing I wanted were my fingerprints on that gack […]
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: kakoa
lang: Finnish
word: kakistella
lang: Finnish
word: kakistaa