vrek, verb intransitive

/frek/
Origin:
Afrikaans, Dutch, GermanShow more Afrikaans, die (of animals), adaptation of Dutch verrekken to disjoint, strain; or adaptation of German verrecken to die (not in polite use).
colloquial
Of animals, or (sometimes contemptuously) of people: to die. Also figurative, and Englished form freck.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 542Vrek,..To die, especially of animals; when used of men it is suggestive of contempt.
c1929 S. Black in S. Gray Three Plays (1984) 104A Johnny who called him Hay-Whotte..Cashed a crowd of dud cheques, Well, I hope that he vreks, Such a blighter deserves to be shot.
1966 Van Heyningen & Berthoud Uys Krige 119Koos..speaks with neither awe nor self-pity of his own coming death: he is going to ‘vrek,’ the same process that a dog or an ox goes through.
1971 J. Fischer Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)I kicked the engine and it went brrrmm and then vrekked.
1973 J. Cope Alley Cat 163‘Where’s your mother live?’ ‘She frecked out...must be two weeks ago.’ ‘Died?’ ‘I said so, didn’t I?’
1973 Farmer’s Weekly 11 July 49‘Our stock..are “vrekking” like flies’ Mr David Hobson told congress.
1977 Het Suid-Western 30 Nov.A plastic pool to hold a two-metre shark?..The unhappy shark..has vrekked after its ordeal.
1980 C. Hope A Separate Development (1983) 140With Molefe you pay or vrek. End of story!
1987 Frontline Mar. 35A R3 000 bull on its side, foaming at the mouth and legs thrashing as it vreks from Heartwater.
1988 A. Dangor in Bunn & Taylor From S. Afr. 199‘Muriel has murdered Jan April and Clarence Meyer’...‘Stroes God? Vrek! Right there in the dust!’
1990 Personality 15 Jan. 17English goes from bad to worse as..Prince Charles rewrites Shakespeare — and Hamlet vreks.
to die. Also figurative, and Englished form freck.
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19131990
vrachter, adverbadv.vroetel, verb intransitivev.
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