barf bag
- noun
- /bɑrf bæg/
- Informal
- The airline provided a barf bag for passengers who might feel sick during the flight.
- got a barf bag
- holds a barf bag
- give you a barf bag
Examples
-
Across the aisle from him, a young woman bowed her head into her barf bag and gave back the miserable little snack the airline had recently fed her.
Fiction book (2002) -
Does this couch come with a barf bag?
-
Someone hand me a barf bag.
Blog text (10) -
Get your barf bags ready.
Blog text (18) -
I mean, am I going to need to keep a barf bag handy for the next four years?
Blog text (31) -
But if you know any and they come along, there's a barf bag in the back.
-
My stuff is in those airline magazines, right behind the barf bags.
-
I hope we don't have to pass out any barf bags.
-
There just aren't enough barf bags!
Blog text (22) -
The attendants handed them all barf bags and got out; the door closed, and the cylinder started moving.
Fiction book (1991)
Synonyms
A small disposable bag on planes for passengers to throw up into
A small bag given on planes for passengers to vomit into when they feel ill from movement
How Portable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derived from combining 'barf' (to vomit) with 'bag' (a container): it denotes a bag used for vomiting. This noun–noun compounding pattern is regular in English and cross-linguistically common; although 'barf' is informal, the semantic composition remains transparent to a learner who knows both words.
Etymology
Barf bag is a compound noun that gives a plain image: barf, a slang word for 'to vomit', and bag, a small paper or plastic container used to catch it on planes or in cars. So, Barf bag means a bag given to someone who feels sick and may need to 'vomit'.