Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. sick, ill.

1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Nov. 4/8: I felt pukey / For motor-car riding’s not much in my line.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Bactine’ in Knockemstiff 115: [F]eeling pukey from the thought of the ether smell.

2. disgusting, ‘sick-making’.

1928		M. Bodenheim Georgie May 236: On a second look now, he wasn’t so pukey.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 84: The blood sweet puky taste.
1939		B. Appel Power-House 253: Pukin’ heel, that Murph!
1949		J.H. Burns Lucifer with a Book 53: I hear you’re a veteran. Well, so am I, my dear, of that pukey little 1918 war.
1969		D. Pendleton Executioner (1973) 173: A place where a man could stretch out and thumb his nose at the miserable cops and the puking social climbers.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 135: You’re that skidrow pukey bum that conned me out of a buck.
1983		S. King Christine 527: Arnie Cunningham’s pukey old red car.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 86: Some pukish-lookin’ asparagus dip one of the veggies was passin’ around.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 52: A lot of happy, puky, show-off kids.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 52: He’d been trawling the pukey clubs and bars of the rock demi monde for over a month.