erk
/əːk
/noun British informal, dated
A male member of the RAF of the lowest rank.One day you were an erk and the next day you were commissioned....
- Ron Swain has never forgotten the years he spent as a conscript in the UK Armed Forces, his two-year stint as an ‘erk’ in the Royal Air Force in 1952-3 having been particularly eventful.
- I was showing a new erk round the aircraft.
exclamation
Expressing panic or dismay: Erk! What’s that?...
- I won't even mention the one where he plays a single dad erk!
- However, he is an incredibly intelligent (his postgraduate study was in linguistics… erk!) and instantly likeable man who was only too happy to chat with me.
- Well, now I'm 25 mature and sophisticated years old and - erk - growing up.
Origin
1920s: of unknown origin.