Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also yecch, yuck-a-buck, yuk) anything or anyone seen as disgusting or repulsive; a fool.

1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 182: Yuck is a word introduced into the language by Fred Allen. A yuck is a dope who makes a practice of going around appearing on quiz programmes. That was its original definition; it now means a dope of any description.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 31: Dresses swell, doesn’t he? But Zand — he’s a big yuk.
1957		M. Shulman Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 62: I want ’em [i.e. commercials] smack in the middle when we got the yucks glued to the chair!
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 130: I’m not some yuk telling you I’m unhappy at home.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 82: It was going to be good for her to [...] clean all the yecch out of her system. [Ibid.] 86: Kate [...] bitterly resented having to dispose of his crusted rice and congealed chow yuk.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 409: The food is yuck.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 161: Is that a yuck? Dukey said he was going to push this weird smut.
1992		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 10: yuck-a-buck – an undesirable person.
1999		Observer Rev. 27 June 6: They’re just about tolerable: the safer side of yuck.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] It was a shitty room [...] Just dire enough to be murdered in. Just enough yuck to make it just the damn place.
2024		K. Noem No Going Back 28: Having this level of transparency and accountability [...] takes a lot of the yuck out of campaigning.

2. vomit.

2010

C. Hiaasen Star Island (2011) 7: If you don’t hold that yuck bucket for my sick child [...] you’re fired.

3. a joke.

1961		W.R. Burnett Round the Clock at Volari’s 47: ‘I’m sweeping out now. Is that a yuck? But a guy’s got to eat, Chief’.
1982		A. Maupin Further Tales of the City (1984) 177: Toxic shock your idea of a big yuck, Larry?
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 243: If we have some yucks along the way, what the heck! Does that make me a bad person?
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 415: Here comes the yuk.