Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to vomit.

1881

Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).

a joking mispron. of SE cast aspersions.

1902		Kent & Sussex Courier 22 Oct. 3/7: People have no right to go about casting nasturtiums on other people, indignantly declared the old lady.
1919		Bystander 22 Jan. 172/1: Not that I’m casting nasturtiums at the sex, for the men are no better.
1920		Sun. Post 11 Apr. 9/2: They cast nasturtiums upon the perfectly good hat I wore.
1925		Nottingham Eve. Post 2 Sept. 1/2: I forgive her for hitting me on the head with a marrow, but I will not allow her to cast nasturtiums on my character.
1934		Maryborough Chron. (Qld) 19 Jan. 7/5: Far be it from me to cast asparagus upon those men and women who use slang; it is, after all, their own funeral.
1949		Dundee Courier 9 Apr. 4/4: You needn’t cast ‘nasturtiums’ at my driving like that.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 173: ‘Don’t cast nasturtiums,’ said Papa.
1999		Salon.com 5 May 🌐 Magicians may cast nasturtiums at his technique [...] but fundamentally, Copperfield is an old-fashioned ENTERTAINAH.
2006		posting at www.gruts.com 🌐 Far be it from me to cast nasturtiums at your first-born son, but you haven’t been letting Philip mess around with your Hotmail account, have you?

1. to strip oneself naked.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 9: Cast your skin – strip naked.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

2. (UK society) to rejuvenate oneself.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

(US) of a pimp, to employ an experienced prostitute to lure a new woman into joining his team.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

to bear a grudge, to remind someone of their failings; thus casting up n.

1866		Stirling Obs. 5 July 6/3: We sat [...] together cracking [...] nor was anybody more likly to cast up.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 82: When you get to throwing your money away there is nothing doing. Far be it from me casting up, neither am I a hard loser.
1948		J. O’Connor Come Day – Go Day (1984) 153: I hope it’ll stop all this casting-up from my father.
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 24: To hell with casting up. It will get you no place.
1997		Share Slanguage.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 74: Carrie asked Ursula snottily if she was casting it up.

1. to vomit.

c.1597		Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 2 I iii: Thou beastly feeder, art so full of him That thou provok’st thyself to cast him up. So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard. And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up.
1607		Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe V i: I wud not haue em cast vp their accounts here, for more than they meane to be drunke this tweluemonth.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 589: Poor Panurge fairly cast up his accounts, and gave up his halfpenny (i.e. vomited).
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: To cast up ones Reckoning, the same as Casting up ones Accounts, i.e. Vomiting.
1795		Sporting Mag. Sept. VI 316/1: Poor Skyblue immediately discharged his accounts with ample interest upon the floor.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: To cast-up one’s reckoning [...] to vomit.
1802		R. Anderson ‘The Worton Wedding’ Cumberland Ballads (1805) 12: The breyde she kest up her accounts / In Rachel’s lap.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785, 1796].
1825		Age (London) 26 June 53/1: And Hume ne’er makes you sick, / In casting up accounts.
1827		P. Hawker Diary (1893) I 18 Sept. 319: Before he [i.e. a hunting-dog] was sufficiently in trim to do anything but make his deposits from one port and cast up his accounts from the other, it was time to come home.
1840		T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 33: We have lots of land lubbers on board, young agitators fond of ‘intestine commotions,’ who are constantly ‘spouting’ – maidens whose bosoms ‘heave’ – young clerks who ‘cast up accounts’ – custom-house officers who ‘clear out’ – sharpers given to ‘overreaching’.
1826		W.N. Glascock Naval Sketchbk I 20: A violent retching and deadly sickness overpowered me. Just then I heard a [...] a sneering compliment from the lieutenant, upon the youngster’s punctuality in ‘casting up his accounts’ so soon.
1835		N.Y. Tribune 21 Feb. 2/2: He prudently resolved to swallow laudanum, which he did in such quantity as made him woefully sick, when he ‘cast up his accounts,’ poison and all.
1856		C. Abbey diary 12 Apr. in Gosnell Before the Mast (1989) 25: A heavy sea with the ship in ballast soon made me ‘cast up my accounts’.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 312/1: cast up one’s accounts, [...] piquer un renard.
1872		Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 315: Put your nose in the former [room], and you will be amazed at the suddenness with which you will cast up accounts with your last meal.
1886		Springfield Globe Republic (OH) 22 Sept. 1/4: A German who are and drank till he cast up his accounts.

2. to be drunk, and so likely to vomit.

1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 87: Proverbiall Periphrases of one drunk. He’s disguised [...] He’s about to cast up his reckoning or accompts.
1737		B. Franklin ‘Drinkers Dictionary’ in Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. in AS XII:2 90: They come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK. [...] He’s casting up his Accounts.
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 27 Oct. 74/3: The Marquis of Blandford [will] republish an essay against drunkenness, or the great danger resulting from casting up accounts.