belch

belch vb Belch, burp, vomit, disgorge, regurgitate, spew, throw up are comparable when they mean to eject matter (as food or gas) from the stomach by way of the mouth or, in extended use, from a containing cavity by way of an opening.

Belch denotes the noisy voiding of gas from the stomach and may be extended to something ejected in volume and often with noise (as smoke and fire from a cannon or a volcano)

{

there stood a hill not far, whose grisly top belched fire and rolling smoke— Milton

}

{

the war-fiend shrieks and belches out his fury— Capern

}

Burp in its basic sense in interchangeable with belch

{

mopping his face solemnly with his cologne-scented handkerchief, and burping surreptitiously under it— Mencken

}

but in extended use is much less forceful and usually refers to something sounding like a human belch

{

the engine burped and ran out of gas— Road and Track

}

Vomit is the usual word for the ejection through the mouth of what has been eaten or swallowed; ordinarily it implies nausea, but it may suggest a previous gorging or surfeiting or the use of an emetic

{

and the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land— Jonah 2:10

}

It is often used to suggest a forcible rejection or an emission or a discharge of contents

{

that huge black-mouthed sewer, vomiting its pestilential riches across the mud— Kingsley

}

Disgorge, though close to vomit, more specifically implies an ejection of something swallowed, in essentially its original state

{

Jonah was disgorged by the whale after three days and three nights

}

Especially in extended use it may suggest an ejection or yielding up (as of something held or secreted) that is induced by force or pressure from without

{

make the French generals disgorge the church plate which they have stolen— Wellington

}

Basically regurgitate implies a flowing or gushing back, typically of food from the stomach to the esophagus or mouth

{

cattle regurgitate small cuds of herbage for further chewing

}

In extended use regurgitate may reflect quite neutrally its basic meaning

{

"Mind you," he said regurgitating his article slowly phrase by phrase, "the subject doesn't make the work of art"— Huxley

}

but more often it carries some suggestion of the unpleasantness of the physiological phenomenon

{

Henry was incapable of reversing himself or of regurgitating Cromwell's wealth— Hackett

}

{

read greedily and without abatement, and regurgitated his formal culture in the same feverish spasms— Gurko

}

Spew is rare in modern usage as a synonym for vomit but has extended use as connoting a pouring forth in a stream that cannot be restrained or, sometimes, a spurting or spitting forth

{

the steer . . . dying spews a flood of foamy madness, mixed with clotted blood— Dryden

}

It also may imply specifically a pouring forth of something offensive (as abusive or foul language)

{

Thersites spews over everything that we had deemed high and sacred, his foul . . . insults— Dowderi

}

Basically throw up is closely equivalent to vomit, though it may stress the matter ejected rather than the physiological process. In extended use it is distinctly less vigorous than vomit and usually implies no more than a producing or bringing forth of something

{

all the voluminous information thrown up by successive . . . investigations— Bemis

}

Analogous words: *eject, expel