hork

See also: hörk

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeia or imitative. For “cough up” sense, compare hawk/hock (16th century), which are almost homophonous in non-rhotic accents. For “throw” sense, compare huck. The “foul up” sense is presumably influenced by bork (late 1990s), from broken.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

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• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)k

Verb

hork (third-person singular simple present horks, present participle horking, simple past and past participle horked)

1. (computing, slang) To foul up; to be occupied with difficulty, tangle, or unpleasantness; to be broken.

   I downloaded the program, but something is horked and it won't load.

2. (slang, regional) To steal, especially petty theft or misnomer in jest.

   Can I hork that code from you for my project?

3. (slang) To vomit, cough up.
4. (slang) To throw.

   Let's go hork pickles at people from the back row of the movie theatre.

5. (slang) To eat hastily or greedily; to gobble.

   I don't know what got into her, but she horked all those hoagies last night!

6. (slang, transitive) To move.

   Go hork the kegs from out back.

Usage notes

Senses “eat quickly” and “vomit” can be ambiguous, particularly when applied to food – this is a contranym. These senses can be disambiguated by using "hork up" for "vomit" and "hork down" for "eat quickly."

Synonyms

• (foul up): bork
• (throw): hork
• (cough up): hawk, hock
• (gobble): gobble, scarf, scoff

Anagrams

• Kohr, Kroh, khor