int. and sb. [Imitative.]
1. A representation of an inarticulate sound of the nature of a hollow cough; a sound or utterance of this nature.
1765. Foote, Commissary, I. (1782), 12. Ugh, ugh, ugh—[coughs].
1822. Scott, Nigel, xxiii. The usurer … concluded his speech with a dry ‘ugh, ugh.’
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., li. The next moment,… with an ugh, the Indian fell over my chest dead.
1887. L. Oliphant, Episodes (1888), 70. My address was frequently interrupted by what Fenimore Cooper calls ‘expressive ughs.’
2. An interjection expressive of disgust.
1837. Howitt, Rur. Life, II. v. (1862), 140. The overhanging banks of the most transparent streams—ugh! they are now the very lurking-places of danger!
1855. Browning, Childe Roland, xxi. It may have been a water-rat I speared, But, ugh! it sounded like a baby’s shriek.
1878. Dale, Lect. Preach., viii. 242. Physic … all the year round;… ugh!—it is intolerable.
