Where "Spewing" Comes From
A figurative use of "spew" (to vomit): furious, or gutted. Green's Dictionary of Slang records it as Australian teen slang, with earliest citations from 1990 and 1993. The Oxford English Dictionary also added the Australian sense of "devastated or bitterly disappointed" in June 2025.
Sources: spewing, adj. (Green's Dictionary of Slang) · New Australian slang hits Oxford English Dictionary (Cootamundra Herald)
“Mate, I'm absolutely spewing, they cancelled the game the day before.”
“She was spewing when she found out her flight had been moved to the morning.”
"I'm spewing I missed the concert, it sold out in ten minutes."
How Aussies Actually Use It
Used for both anger and disappointment/regret — context usually makes the difference clear.
Spewing is what you say when something has gone wrong and you are properly annoyed about it, usually because you missed out or a plan fell through. It is blunt and a little crude because of the vomit connection, but it is not swearing, so it is fine among friends and colleagues and common with younger speakers. You will often hear it with "I'm": "I'm spewing."
The feeling is closer to being gutted than to blazing anger. If someone shouts at a driver who cut them off, that is more "ropeable" or "furious". If they lost a game they should have won, or the last ticket sold out, "spewing" fits nicely. A learner tip: it is an adjective about a person, so say "I'm spewing", not "that is spewing". Take care with the plain verb "spew", which still means to vomit, so context matters when the word appears on its own.
See also: Ropeable (stronger, angry sense), Cranky (milder annoyed), Chunder (the literal vomit meaning's cousin).
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