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

  1.  intr. To eructate; = BELCH 1.

2

1387.  Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. II. 195. Somme þat bolked neuere.

3

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 43. Bolkyn, ructo, eructo.

4

1552.  Huloet, Belke, or bolke, or breake wynde vpwarde.

5

1674.  Ray, N. C. Wds., 6. To boke … to Belch. Lincoln.

6

  2.  To bolk out (trans.): to give vent to, ejaculate, vociferate; = BELCH 2.

7

1382.  Wyclif, Ps. xviii. [xix.] 3. Dai to the dai bolketh [1388 tellith] out woord. Ibid., Matt. xiii. 35. I shal bolke out, or telle oute, hid thingus.

8

1553.  Brende, Q. Curtius, VII. 4. Rashenes of wordes bulked out.

9

  3.  trans. To emit (wind) by belching; = BELCH 3.

10

a. 1535.  More, Wks., 1360. Balk out ye stinking sauor of thy rauenous surfeting.

11

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.

12

  4.  intr. To vomit; to retch, or make efforts as in vomiting. Still dial.

13

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxxxv. (1495), 726. The dronklew mannys stomak bolkyth.

14

c. 1480.  Babees Bk. (1868), 18. Bulk not as a beene were yn þi throte.

15

1674.  Ray, N. C. Wds., 6. Boke, to Nauseate, to be ready to vomit, also to Belch.

16

1764.  T. Brydges, Homer Travest. (1797), II. 369. Boaking as if I’d bring my pluck up.

17

1832.  Blackw. Mag., XXXII. 647. He began to strain and to bock.

18

1855.  Whitby Gloss., To Boak, the effort to vomit, to reach.

19

  b.  trans. Also with up. dial.

20

1790.  A. Wilson, Callamp. Elegy, Poet. Wks. 105. His vera guts he’s bockan In blude this day.

21

1863.  Robson, Bards of Tyne, 433. Whey, she had bowk’t the sma’ beer up.

22

  5.  fig. and transf. To emit as in vomiting, to eject (as a volcano).

23

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, III. viii. 136. It … will … Furth bok the bowalis … of the hill.

24

1561.  Studley, Seneca’s Medea (1581), 128. Ætna bolking stifling flames and dusky vapours up.

25

1787.  Burns, Winter Nt. Burns … thro’ the mining outlet boked, Down headlong hurl.

26

  6.  intr. To heave or throb like a confined gas or fluid. To bolk up: to ‘rise’ in the stomach.

27

1561.  Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 37 a. The meate bulketh up agayne.

28

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.

29

  7.  intr. To gush, flow in gulps.

30

a. 1550.  Christis Kirke Gr., xxi. Blude at breastis out bokkit.

31

1541.  Barnes, Wks. (1573), 251/2. Theyr plenteous wine presses and their full sellers bolkyng from thys vnto that.

32

a. 1600.  Rob. Hood (Ritson), I. iii. 131. At his mouth came bocking out The blood of a good vain.

33