Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to die; often as cark it.

1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 302: Ya see, that Wog ya roughed up – well, he karked.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 50: Among these colloquialisms are ‘aggro’, an aggressive patient; ‘dunny’, a confused, disorientated and (usually) senile patient; a ‘stiff dunny’ is dead or, in other words ‘has carked it’, and a patient who has ‘sloughed off’ has disappeared.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 307: ‘Someone should tell that bloke sideburns went out when Elvis carked it’.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 6: I noticed that the phone line wasn’t the only thing that was dead [...] ‘He’s carked it!’ I bleated.
2001		N. Griffiths Sheepshagger 55: Comes out of jail that very fuckin day an to celebrate OD’s on meth. Carked it. The prick.
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 38: Charlie [...] carking it on the very day the body turns up.
2009		T. Black Gutted 94: ‘He left the bar to his wife.’ ‘He couldn’t have seen she’d cark it inside a month’.
2014		me-stepmums-too-fuckin-hot-mate at www.fakku.net 🌐 Me mum carked it a coupl’a years back.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 290/1: cark it to die.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 316: ‘Thanks for not letting me cark it’.

2. in lit. or fig. use, to break down.

1984		Sydney Morning Herald 17 Mar. 37: The tradition that we thought would die hard has carked completely [GAW1].
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 32: Kark: [...] Machinery, especially cars, can also kark it.
2008		www.b3ta.com 30 Oct. 🌐 Well, it all went okay until they were sailing somewhere near Polynesia and the engine carked it.
2012		forums.justcommodores.com.au 31 Dec. 🌐 The original engine karked it at 255000 and now the odometer is at 330000 with this VR engine and god knows how much its done before going in my car.

3. as imper., to stop an action.

1975		Galaxy 36 1-5 118/1: Now don’t start, Barb. We've been through this, kark it.

4. to vomit.

1986

R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 32: Kark: To ‘chunder’, to have ‘a technicolour yawn’, ‘laugh at the ground’ or ‘shout for Ruth.’.

5. to fall into a drunken sleep.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 43: to cark out is to fall into a drunken sleep. C20.