🤮 is a face with eyes squeezed shut and a wide-open mouth pouring out green vomit. It joined Unicode in 2017, a year after 🤢 (nauseated face), and the two are often introduced as a pair: 🤢 is holding it in, 🤮 is what happens next. It does get used for literal throwing up, but online it is mostly a theatrical rejection: “that is disgusting,” “I don’t want to see that,” “this is so cringe I’m physically ill.”
How it’s used
- Literally: “Drank way too much last night, woke up 🤮”
- Motion sickness or morning sickness: “Back seat on a winding road 🤮”
- Strong dislike: “You put ketchup on that? 🤮”
- Cringe: “Did you see their anniversary post? 🤮”
- Self-deprecation: “Reread my old essays 🤮”
If 🤢 is “my stomach is turning,” 🤮 is “it came out.” The reaction is one level stronger, and even as a joke it lands quite directly on whoever it is aimed at. Other sick faces like 🤒 (face with thermometer) and 🤧 (sneezing face) invite sympathy; 🤮 carries a judgment with it, which is why it reads as rude so easily.
Korea, Japan and the English-speaking world
In English it goes by “throwing up,” “puking” or “barf” and is the standard emoji for “gross,” “ew” and “cringe.” It shows up heavily in replies to political news and celebrity gossip, where it is less a joke than a flat statement of rejection. It is also flipped into a backhanded compliment: “you two are so cute I could throw up 🤮” is affectionate, not hostile. Pairing it with 🥴 or 😵💫 turns it into a drinking-story emoji, with 🤮 as the final, worst stage.
Korean already has everyday hyperbole like 토 나온다 (“makes me want to puke”) and 우웩 (“blech”), so 🤮 fit right in. It is a staple of food-taste debates (mint chocolate, pineapple pizza) and of teasing couples over public displays of affection, and on forums a lone 🤮 is a complete reply to a post. The morning-after drinking report is another classic use.
In Japan the emoji is paired with onomatopoeia like ゲロ or オエッ more than with its official name 嘔吐する顔. It leans more toward reporting an actual physical state, such as a hangover or carsickness. Aiming it at another person’s taste or appearance is taken as more offensive than in Korea or in English, though self-deprecating jokes among friends (“looked back at my old posts 🤮”) are fine.
Where it gets misread
- Replying 🤮 to someone’s photo or food is read as an insult, not a joke, unless you are close. Skip it with acquaintances.
- When someone says they are actually unwell, 🤢 or 🤒 is safe; 🤮 can look like you are making light of it.
- It is often mixed up with 🤢, but the intensity differs. “Not my thing” is 🤢; “I can’t even look” is 🤮.
- In a thread where it stands for being drunk, remember it is the roughest stage of the sequence, not a cute one.
Design differences by platform
Apple’s version has tightly shut eyes, furrowed brows and a waterfall of green, giving it the most violent look. Google’s Noto face is rounder with a smaller stream and reads as cartoonish; Microsoft’s Fluent design is three-dimensional with a slightly pale complexion that emphasizes illness. Samsung opens the mouth very wide with simple eyes, landing closer to comic than gross. Across platforms the vomit is consistently green, which keeps it distinguishable from 🤢 even at small sizes.
