1943 H. A. Smith Life in Putty Knife Factory xiv. 239 Yuck is a word introduced into the language by Fred Allen. A yuck is a dope who makes a practice of going around appearing on quiz programs. That was its original definition; it now means a dope of any description.

1948 R. Chandler Let. 27 Jan. in Sel. Lett. (1981) 105 The public's capacity and adaptability to a quality of entertainment which the yucks seem to be afraid to give them.

1957 M. Shulman Rally round Flag, Boys! (1958) vi. 67 The yucks who look at television don't know the difference between Ernest Hemingway and Huntz Hall.

1972 P. Rowlands Fugitive Mind xi. 132 ‘Is your brother a yuk?’ Clare asked Sally. ‘Oh yes! He's a terrible yuk! He shouts a lot, he breaks my toys, he pushes me over.’

1979 J. Wainwright Duty Elsewhere xx. 56 Three no-good yucks had felt like playing footsie with the law.

1963 Amer. Speech 38 301 [Newfoundland.] Yuck, to vomit.

1981 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. lxviii. 54 [Newfoundland.] To vomit, yuck.

1966 R. H. Rimmer Harrad Exper. (1967) 25 Across the table; Dorothy Stapleton and Valerie Something-or-other belong (yucks, is that the right word?) to Herber Snyder and Peter Longini.

1970 It 12 Feb. 16/4 The whole tenor of the epistle is that of one elite talking to another without reference to..those who have paid... Yuk.

1976 G. Moffat Short Time to Live vii. 58 ‘Fish pie perhaps, and parsley sauce.’ ‘Yuk,’ said Arabella.

1981 P. Dickinson Seventh Raven x. 130 You took a harmless animal and chopped it up..to please your God—yuck, they thought.

1983 D. Simpson Puppet for Corpse xx. 172 It was the way he talked about her... ‘You know what older women are, wink, wink.’.. Yuk!

1966 New Statesman 19 Aug. 258/1 Rotting wodges of chilly yuck which once were apples and pears.

1971 P. Purser Holy Father's Navy xxxviii. 187 There was a lot of yuk which I didn't investigate too closely, and a bit of ear definitely in the wrong place.

1977 Times 17 Oct. 12/6 I asked Nancy Grimes, a freelance who arranges plants for people... ‘The offices now are so ugly and so standard, such standardized urban yuk... They want to see something that can actually survive and grow here. It gives them reassurance.’

1981 M. E. Atkins Palimpsest xii. 118 One of those syndicated advice columns... All noble sentiments and romantic yuk.

1971 TV Times (Austral.) 24 Feb. 39/2 Business was a bit yuk and I was bugged by this lack of confidence.

1973 P. Dickinson Green Gene ii. 28 She's got a really yuck family, even worse than mine.

1972 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 30 Mar. 1/10 The BBC yesterday described a song about the former Australian Prime Minister..as the biggest ‘yuk-making’ piece of propaganda in politics.

1975 Listener 7 Aug. 168/3 Nasty, yuk-making remarks.