Forms: 4–5 vomyt (5 womyt, vomyght), 5–6 vomyte, 5–7 vomite, 6 vomitte, 6– vomit (6 womit), 7–8 vomitt; 4–6 vomet, 5 -ete, -ette, 6 womeit, 7 vomett. [a. AF. vomit, -ite, OF. vomite (= It., Sp., Pg. vomito), or ad. L. vomit-us, f. vomĕre: see next.]
1. The act of ejecting the contents of the stomach through the mouth: a. With a and pl.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 85. Duke Edrik,… feynynge a vomet or brakynge, seide þat he was seek.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 13545. The salt water sadly sanke in my wombe, Þat I voidet with vomettes by vertu of goddes.
1484. Caxton, Curial, 3 b. We ete so gredyly … that otherwhyle we caste it up agayn and make vomytes.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 194 b. For very feblenes of nature caused by purgacious and vomites he dyed.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health, 437. Nvx vomica … causeth a strong vomite.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, V. iii. I haue pills about me Would giue him a light vomit.
1681. Rycaut, trans. Gracian’s Critick, 123. It gave them immediately such a Vomit, that they speued forth most vile Corruption.
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 158. They soon grow old, they have … Phrensies, choleric Vomits, and Fluxes.
1740. Cheyne, Regimen, p. v. Vomits drive forcibly out of the upper part of the chyliferous Tube … its noxious Contents.
1794. T. Taylor, Pausanias’ Descr. Greece, III. 172. He afterwards threw it up by a vomit.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 901. Vomiting in perityphlitis … may occur repeatedly, or there may be only an initial vomit.
fig. 1411–2. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 272. Vnwise is he þat besy þoght ne dredeþ. In whom þat he his mortel venym schedeþ, But if a vomyt after folwe blyue, At þe port of despeir he may arryue.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 55. Others … stirred up the dregs of those rude humours, which by time … he sought to repose, or to give them all a vomit.
b. Without article.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1898. Hym gayneth neither for to gete his lif, Vomyt vpward, ne dounward laxatif.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 247. Vomyte purgyth the stomake of ill humours aboue, as a medecyne laxatyfe benethe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 512/1. Vomyte, or evomyte, brakynge, vomitus.
1528. Paynell, Salerne’s Regim., D iij. He shulde eate no maner of meates without his stomake be net, and purged of all yl humours by vomet.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 293. They remedy that surfecte by vomyte whiche they prouoke by eatynge of antes.
1564. Harding, Answ. Jewel, 46. When the deacon had forced her to receiue a litle of the cuppe, the yeax and vomite followed.
a. 1610. Healey, Cebes (1636), 135. Which purgeth out all their ingulphed evils, as by vomit or ejection.
c. 1610. Women Saints, 40. As often as she eate of the … meate, she by vomite cast it vp againe.
1694. Salmon, Bate’s Dispens. (1713), 331/2. It is said to be Diaphoretick, and gently to provoke Vomit.
† c. With the, in specific use. Obs.–1
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Flyting, 318. The weam-eill, the wildfire, the vomit and the vees.
d. (See quot.)
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., 20/1. Barcoo Vomit, n. a sickness occurring in inhabitants of various parts of the high land of the interior of Australia. It is characterized by painless attacks of vomiting.
2. Matter ejected from the stomach by vomiting; = SPEW sb. 1.
c. 1390. Wycliffite Bible, 2 Pet. ii. 22. An hound turned aȝen to his woom [v.rr. vomyt, womyt].
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lxiv. 278 (Harl. MS.). He may be likenide to an hound þat turnith aȝen to his vomyt.
1535. Coverdale, Isaiah xxviii. 8. All tables are so ful of vomyte and fylthynes, yt no place is clene.
1578. H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 205. The Image of Bacchus with fat red cheekes, begrimed wyth vomets.
1631. R. Bolton, Comf. Affl. Consc. (1635), 307. As a loathsome vomit is to the stomacke of him that casts it out so are luke-warme Professours to the Lord Jesus.
1643. Trapp, Comm. Gen. vi. 11. The vomit of a dog.
1820. Shelley, Œdipus, I. 353. Here The Gadfly’s venom … Is mingled with the vomit of the Leech.
1876. Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med. (1878), 655. The character of the vomit depends on circumstances. Generally, however, it comprises mucus … and bile.
1882. Ballantine, Exper. Barrister’s Life, II. 10. A physician … who was present when the vomit was analysed.
b. Black vomit, a blackish matter, resembling coffee grounds and due to hæmorrhage, vomited in severer cases of yellow fever; also, the disease of yellow fever itself.
1749. Phil. Trans., XLVI. 137. The black Vomit was not known at Cartagena … until the Years 1729 and 1730.
c. 1793. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XI. 146/2. The Yellow Fever … is the same with that called, from one of its worst symptoms, the black vomit.
1833. Cycl. Pract. Med., II. 295. A fever, with yellow skin and black vomit in some of the cases, appeared among a party of forty men.
1876. Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med. (1878), 199. On the third or fourth day, or later, the vomited matters … begin to contain blood, and they soon assume … a coffee-ground character, constituting the so-called ‘black vomit.’
1883. Century Mag., July, 427/1. Hands sent aboard … left on the next day, believing they had detected ‘black vomit’ in her hospital.
attrib. 1833. Cycl. Pract. Med., II. 265. A black-vomit epidemic. Ibid. The black-vomit fever of the West Indies.
c. (See quots.)
1886. Fagge’s Princ. & Pract. Med., II. 808/1. Coffee-ground vomit in cancer of stomach.
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict., Bilious vomit, bile forced back into the stomach and ejected with vomited matter.
(a) 1575. Gascoigne, Glasse Govt., Argt., Wks. 1910, II. 5. The eldest (turning to their vomit) take their cariage with them, and travaile the worlde.
1579. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 80. Turne no more to the puddle and vomit of your filthye, ydle life.
1601. F. Godwin, Bps. of Eng., 7. They likewise returned to the filthie vomite of their abominable idolatrie.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., Wks. 1851, III. 290. Now that ye have started back from the purity of Scripture … to the old vomit of your traditions.
1677. W. Hubbard, Narrative, 14. Returning back to his old vomit, he was at last prevailed with to forsake Philip.
1706. Stevens, Span. Dict., I. Bolver al vomito, to return to the vomit, to relapse into sin.
(b) a. 1583. Polwart, Flyting, 564, in Montgomerie’s Poems (S.T.S., 1910), 170. The loun man lik his womeit, and deny His schameles sawis.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. iii. 99. Now thou would’st eate thy dead vomit vp, And howl’st to finde it.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., I. iv. Dog! I will make thee eate thy vomit up.
1655. Vaughan, Silex Scint., I. Misery, 20. I …Feed on those vomits of my heart.
b. Applied with contemptuous force to persons or things of a vile, loathsome or disgusting character.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., I. i. Out you dog-leach, The vomit of all prisons.
1650. T. Vaughan, Anthroposophia, To Rdr. It is not the primitive Trueth of the Creation…, but a certaine preternaturall upstart, a vomit of Aristotle.
1880. L. Wallace, Ben-Hur, 531. The vomit of Jerusalem is coming.
1889. J. Dickie, Words Faith, Hope & L. (1892), 272. Jesus speaks of him as a vomit, which He will have to spue out.
c. transf. Substance cast out by discharge or eruption.
1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., III. 65. The lab’ring Mounts Belch drossy Vomit out.
1914. Blackw. Mag., Oct., 473/1. Four companies … had to be detailed to capture it under cover of a mountain battery’s vomit.
4. A powder, draught or other medicine that causes vomiting; an emetic.
Freq. from c. 1600 to c. 1800.
a. 1400. Stockholm Med. MS., ii. 51, in Anglia, XVIII. 309. Ȝif þou of vomites wylt hawe bote.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 18. Laxatiues & vometis ben nedeful to hem, þat han olde rotid woundis.
1522. More, De quat. Noviss., Wks. 100. Fain wold we haue some medicins, as purgacions & vomites, to pul down & auoid yt we cram in to much.
1580. Hester, trans. Fioravanti’s Disc. Chirurg., 37. The first thing that I gaue him was a vomitte that purged the stomacke.
1605. Timme, Quersit., I. xiii. 53. The extraction whereof maketh a very good and gentle vomit.
1664. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), II. 19. A vomitt that I took of Mr. Alport, 1s. 6d.
1712. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 18 Sept. I have taken a vomit to-day, and hope I shall be better.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl. s.v. Emetic, The great practice of the antient Egyptian physicians consisted in glysters, vomits, and abstinence.
1785. Trusler, Mod. Times, II. (ed. 3), 114–5. I told the scoundrel to make up a vomit, and he has made up a purge.
1803. Beddoes, Hygëia, IX. 155. The state of the stomach had been changed by absorbents, vomits or bitters.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 452. He saw from thirty to fifty gall-stones voided after taking only an oil vomit.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., 1337/2. Vomit, common term for an emetic draught or powder.
fig. 1589. Nashe, Pasquill & Marf., 20. Martin … poysoned her [sc. Divinity] with a vomit which he ministred vnto her, to make her cast vppe her dignities and promotions.
1643. Trapp, Comm. Gen. vi. 13. The earth … is burdened with them, and cryes to me for a vomit to spue them out.
5. The hood or cover of a vomiting boiler.
1880. J. Dunbar, Practical Papermaker (1881), 19. [Rags] boiled with steam … for 10 hours in stationary boilers without vomit.
1885. Encycl. Brit., XVIII. 220/1. [The] hot liquid … is dispersed all over the boiler by striking against a hood E at the top. This is technically known as the ‘vomit.’
