I. ˈbärk, ˈbȧk verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English berken, from Old English beorcan; akin to Old Norse berkja to bark, Lithuanian burgėti to growl, quarrel
intransitive verb
1.
a. of a dog : to emit or utter its characteristic short loud explosive cry
b. : to make a noise resembling a bark
a fox barked far away — Ellen Glasgow
a squirrel barked at him from a beech tree — Edwin Granberry
a seal barks
a solitary cannon barked — Louis Bromfield
2. : to speak in a curt loud or explosive and usually angry tone : snap
Mr. Webb … alternately barking at his “son” and accusing his wife of an unforgivable breach of taste — Hollis Alpert
barking at his crew
spends his life barking into phones — J.S.Sandoe
transitive verb
1. : to utter in a curt loud usually angry tone
he would suddenly bark out harsh, bitter, and coarse sayings — V.S.Pritchett
barked orders into the telephone for coffee and food — Barnaby Conrad
2. : to advertise (goods for public sale or use) by loud persistent outcry
newsboys will be found barking their wares on the … steps — British Books of the Month
II. noun
( -s )
1.
a. : the short loud explosive sound made by a dog ; also : a similar sound made by some other animals
b. : any other similar sound (as a cough or a pistol shot)
2. : a short sharp peremptory tone of speech or utterance
the … bark of the coxswain — W.H.Mansfield
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English barke, from Old Norse bark-, börkr; akin to Middle Dutch & Middle Low German borke bark and probably to Old Norse björk birch tree — more at birch
1.
a. : the exterior dead cellular covering of woody roots and stems, often rough when older, that consists at first mainly of cork layers and cortical parenchyma together with epidermis, pericycle, and phloem of which only phloem and cork persist indefinitely, and is considered to include (1) all tissues outside the true cambium or (2) only those tissues external to the innermost cork cambium — compare periderm
b. : the outer layer or covering ; specifically : the human skin
fell, knocking all the bark off his shins
2.
a. : tanbark
b. : cinchona bark
3. : a dark olive brown — called also mocha
IV. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English barken, from barke, n.
1. : to treat with an infusion of tanbark : tan
2. : to strip the bark from ; specifically : girdle II 3
3. : to rub a portion of skin off or break the skin of usually by banging or rubbing sharply against a rough or sharp object
they kept on colliding with the cabinet in the dark, bruising their elbows and barking their shins — Hamilton Basso
4. : to bring down or kill (a squirrel in a tree) by striking the bark of the tree with a bullet
V. noun
or barque “
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English bark, from Middle French barque, from Old Provençal barca, from Late Latin
1.
a. : any small sailing ship (as a fishing smack or pinnace)
b. : rowboat
2. : a three-masted vessel with her foremast and mainmast square-rigged and her mizzenmast fore-and-aft rigged — compare four-masted bark
3. : a craft of any size or character propelled by sails or oars
some lone bark buoy'd on the dense marine — Walt Whitman