Ralph
/ɹælf/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A raven. UK, obsolete, regional
Verb
- 1 To vomit. slang
Proper Noun
- 1 A male given name from the Germanic languages.
"There were none fine but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory: / The rest were ragged, old, and beggarly"
- 2 A surname originating as a patronymic.
- 3 Fictional person used in references to vomiting. slang
"He's outside calling Ralph [i.e. vomiting]."
- 4 An unincorporated community in Harding County, South Dakota, United States.
- 5 An unincorporated community in Webster County, West Virginia, United States.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"As Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it, "language is fossil poetry"."
Etymology
Etymology 1
US 1960s, of uncertain origin, apparently derived from a use of the male name Ralph, but perhaps imitative.
Etymology 2
From Middle English Radulf, from Old English Rǣdwulf (also as Raulf), from Proto-West Germanic *Rādawulf, from Proto-Germanic *Rēdawulfaz. Reinforced by similar forms brought to England, e.g. Old Norse Ráðúlfr, then in the Norman form Old French Radulf, Radulph. For the sense relating to vomiting, see ralph.