A: To eject food from the stomach; to vomit.

Evidence: Johnson, Samuel.
A Dictionary of the English Language. 1765

Martha Ballard wrote in her diary using non-standardized spelling, as was common in her day. She often spelled a word the way it sounded when she spoke it. Many of her words and abbreviations are easily figured out if one reads them out loud. For example, try saying pukt out loud.

During Martha's time, puking and purging were used deliberately to treat illness. Physicians thought that relief could be found and health restored in this way. In the Sewall birth, however, the puking was probably not the deliberate intent of Dr. Page's laudanum treatment.

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