Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (mainly US, also puker) an obnoxious person or thing, a pest.

1834		Military & Naval Mag. (US) Nov. 204: ‘But speaking in pretty plain terms of yourself,’ said Boy. ‘You are a puke, sir — that's my opinion; you are a puke’.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 11 June n.p.: Who wins the most [...] the young puke Y or the saint.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 61: Go bag your nut, you pyare. Puke. Hook it, you gonniff [...] go and croak your ugly self, you half bred pig!
1847		J.S. Robb Streaks of Squatter Life 152: Captain and all hands are a set of cowardly pukes!
1853		J.G. Baldwin Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi 287: It was [...] Sir William Blackstone, whom he regarded as ‘something between a sneak and a puke’.
1867		R.M. Devens Pictorial Book 159: I’ll show you how I parole such pukes as you are [DA].
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 625: Puke, as a noun, and in the sense of a low, contemptible fellow, is unenviable American slang.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 360: puke, n. A low or contemptible fellow.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 586: puke, n. A mean, contemptible fellow, especially one who is morally unclean.
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 112: ‘The dirty old puke!’ he growled.
1944		Botkin A Treasury of Amer. Folklore 589: I got him down, and that’s ’nuff fur sich pukes as you ter know.
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] ‘I’m askin’ you something, you big puke!’.
1967		W. Murray Sweet Ride 93: Oh, you delicious pukers, here I am!
1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 216: ‘Oh, puke,’ Mary Anne whispered.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 67: Prankster Frank then told a few other cops how easy it was to dispose of smart-mouth pukes.
1992		P. Earley Hot House 334: [T]his puke is in prison because he kidnapped two boys, ages three and five, and took them up to a cabin and tortured them, repeatedly sexually raped and tortured them, and then killed them both.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 192: Who are those pukes?

2. attrib. use of sense 1, unpleasant, worthless.

1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 206: You and you puke brother set up alibis to cover your asses.
2004		www.keepandbeararms.com 🌐 Maybe we ought-ter do the same thing to these gun-control puke-politicians.

3. a person from Missouri [from the declaration by early Californians that immigrants from Missouri had been ‘vomited forth’ from that state].

1835		A. Parker A Trip to the West and Texas 87: The inhabitants [...] of Michigan are called wolverines; [...] of Missouri, pukes [DA].
1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 264: There’s the hoosiers of Indiana the suckers of Illinoy, the pukes of Missuri.
1845		Bangor Mercury n.p.: A smart sprinkling of the inhabitants of Illinois are from New England, a heap from Kentucky, and the balance are John Bulls, Paddies, Pukes.
1858		A.D. Richardson Beyond the Mississippi (1867) 132: Early Californians christened as ‘Pukes’ the immigrants from Missouri, declaring that they had been vomited forth from that prolific state.
1861		White Cloud Kansas Chieftain 10 Oct. n.p.: They crossed the line, and trod the soil of Kansas, so unwholesome to invading ‘Pukes‘.
1878		Red Cloud Chieftain (MO) 26 Dec. 2/5: Missouri Pukes.
1885		North Amer. Rev. Nov. 433: Among the rank and file, both armies, it was very general to speak of the different States they came from by their slang names. Those from Maine were called Foxes; [...] Indiana, Hoosiers; Illinois, Suckers; Missouri, Pukes; Mississippi, Tad Poles; Florida, Fly up the Creeks; Wisconsin, Badgers; Iowa, Hawkeyes; Oregon, Hard Cases.
1893		Chicago Trib. 26 Apr. 6/4: I have noticed [...] a great many learned and owl-like explanations of why Illinoisans are called ‘Suckers’ and Missourians ‘Pukes’ [DA].
1904		Morgan County Democrat (MO) 18 Nov. 4/2: You Missouri P-U-K-E-S have played the DEVIL. Missouri now has N-I-G-G-E-R Equality.
1910		University Missourian (MO) 6 Jan. 3/3: He does not envy North carolina her ‘Tarheel’ [...] and the Missouri ‘Puke’ he abominates.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 200: puke, a Missourian.
1944		Botkin A Treasury of Amer. Folklore 318: Early Californians christened as ‘Pukes’ the immigrants from Missouri, declaring they had been vomited forth from that prolific state.
1954		in V. Randolph Pissing in the Snow (1988) 148: There was a bunch of Pukes lived over by Joplin.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 288: Needs to learn how to use his dukes. I’m just the Puke to teach ’im, too.

4. (Scot.) nonsense, rubbbish.

1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Jan. 8/5: There was a lot pf namby-pamby puke published and pattered in Sydney during the recent tour of the all-conquering New Zealanders about ‘rough play’.
1988		M. Atwood Cat’s Eye (1989) 212: [...] are holding hands and walking into the ocean. ‘Clinch. The End.’ ‘Oh double puke,’ says Cordelia.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 136: Aw this Mandela stuff is embarrassing puke, he rants.

5. an insignificant person.

1910		P.W. Joyce Eng. As We Speak It In Ireland (1979) 308: Puke; a poor puny unhealthy-looking person.
1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire (1980) 32: You should be laughing at yourselves, you dippy pukes!
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 47: He wasn’t able to picture the great Viceroy Wilson [...] rubbing elbows with a bunch of pukes at Pauly’s.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 143: I am thrown a few sloppy salutes by half a squad of Army pukes who are drunk.
2000		M.E. Dassad ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 It was an old story, I heard it from all these little pukes, their father or some uncle or neighbor or priest or rabbi or little league coach had been poking them in one hole or other so they ran away from home.

6. any form of disgusting drink.

2000

M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 57: ‘What’s the beef with the old man’ he said, offering another can of bum puke.