▪ I. murk, mirk, n.1
(mɜːk)
Forms: 1 mirce, myrce, 4 merck, myrke, 4–5 merk(e, mirke, 5–9 mirk, 6 myrk, 6, 9 mark, 7 murke, 7– murk.
[OE. mirce str. neut., related to murk a. Cf. ON. myrkr, genit. myrkrs (Sw. mörker), myrkve wk. masc. (Da. m{obar}rke).]
1. Darkness. lit. and fig. Now chiefly Sc.
| a 1000 Daniel 448 (Gr.) Se ðe hie of ðam mirce ᵹenerede. c 1220 Bestiary 443 Ledeð man to helle merk. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 2164 ᵹyf þou brake euer any kyrke, On day, or yn nyȝht, yn myrke [Dulwich MS. in the merke]. c 1440 York Myst. xxxvii. 53 I spake of folke in mirke walkand. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 107 Nor thé perturb in mark nor lycht. 1585 Reg. Privy Council Scot. IV. 28 The diet of the proclamatioun is in the mirk of the mone. 1601 Shakes. All's Well ii. i. 166 Ere twice in murke and occidentall dampe Moist Hesperus hath quench'd her sleepy Lampe. 1791 Burns Tam O'Shanter 31 She prophesy'd that, late or soon, Thou would be found deep drown'd in Doon; Or catch'd wi' warlocks i' the mirk. 1852 Longfellow Jewish Cemetery at Newport ix, They lived in..lanes obscure,..in mirk and mire. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. vi. i. (1872) II. 138 Aloft from the murk of commonplace rise glancings of a starry splendour. 1904 Hewlett Queen's Quair i. vii. 94 In the grey mirk..Lethington and his master came to rouse her. |
2. Thick or murky air or vapour. Also fig.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 23669 Ne mist ne merck ne na maner O weder to þe werld to der. 1846 Longfellow in Life (1891) II. 68 We came out in the murk and rain. 1891 E. Field Western Verse 34 A song of the land of murk and mist. |
▪ II. murk, n.2
(mɜːk)
Also 7–9 murc, 8 murck, 9 mirk.
[? var. of marc.]
= marc.
| 1676 Worlidge Cyder 91 In case you resolve to adde water to your Murc,..then you need not press it too hard; for your Cider will then be the worse. 1750 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. VII. ii. 124 The Lees or Murk of the pressing [of walnuts]. 1845 Encycl. Metrop. XXV. 1275/2 When all the juice is received by the operation of treading, the skins, stems, and seeds, or as it is properly called, the murk, is submitted to great pressure. |
▪ III. murk, mirk, a. Now dial. (Sc.) and poet. or arch.
(mɜːk)
Forms: 1 mirce, myrce, 3 mirc, 3–5 merk, 3–7 mirke, 4 merck, 4–5 merke, 4–6 myrk, 4–7 myrke, 5 marke, 6, 8, 9 mark, 4– mirk, 7– murk.
[OE. mirce = OS. mirki, ON. myrk-r (inflected myrkv-; Sw. mörk, Da. m{obar}rk):—OTeut. *merkwjo-, *merkwi-. Outside Teut. no certain cognates have been found.
It is usually assumed that the existing word is from ON., on the ground that OE. mirce should have yielded *mirch; but it cannot be affirmed that OE. c from kw would not have remained as (k). Cf. thick:—OE. þicce.
The prevailing spelling in Scottish writers is mirk; the modern poetic use, being chiefly imitated from Sc., usually has this spelling; the independent use by English writers associates the word with murky, whence the form murk.]
1. Obscure, deficient in light, dark. a. Of night, day, the weather, etc. mirk night Sc., the darkest part of the night [cf. ON. myrk-nǽtti]. mirk Monday Sc., the day of the great solar eclipse of 29 Mar. (= 8th April N.S.) 1652.
| c 1300 Havelok 404 On the mirke nith to shine. c 1400 Rom. Rose 5339 Take eclips right as the mone, Whan..The shadowe maketh her bemis merke. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 7136 Þai rest in Iarow, whils it was myrke. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 38 I did spaceir vp ande doune but sleipe, the maist part of the myrk nycht. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 405 The night was grow-and mark wpoun thame. 1647 Herrick Noble Numbers, To his Conscience, That in the mirk and tonguelesse night, Wanton I may. c 1767 Archæologia I. 230 note, The great Solar eclipse, vulgarly called the Mirk Monday. 1781 Burns My Nanie, O ii, The night's baith mirk and rainy, O. a 1884 Calverley Lit. Rem. (1885) 206 Murk night seemed lately fair-complexioned day. |
b. Of places.
| Beowulf 1405 Gang ofer grundas ᵹeᵹnum for ofer myrcan mor. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 456 Þar duellid man in a myrk dungeon. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 22 Amang thay myrk Montanis sa madlie thay mer. 1533 Bellenden tr. Livy i. vi. (S.T.S.) I. 38 In ane myrk and obscure place. 1792 Burns My Ain Kind Dearie ii, In mirkest glen, at mid⁓night hour, I'd rove, and ne'er be eerie O. 1821 Byron Juan iv. xxxiii, Mirk The sharp rocks look'd below. 1844 Mrs. Browning Sonn., Work & Contempl., These temples mirk. |
c. Of air, etc.: Darkened; esp. darkened by mist; hence, misty, dense.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xiii. (Marcus) 177 Sa wondire myrke become þe ayr, þat before wes clere and fayre. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. 88 A hideous bleakenesse of a thicke and mirke mist settled upon the ground. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 353 Mirk was the air. 1888 Lowell Black Preacher 38 Fingers long fleshless the bell-ropes work, The chimes peal muffled with sea-mists mirk. |
d. fig. in various applications: † Atrociously wicked (obs.); obscure, hard to understand; gloomy, depressing; unenlightened.
| a 1000 Phœnix 457 (Gr.) Fæder on fultum, forð onetteð, lænan lifes leahtras dwæsceþ, mirce mandæde. a 1300 Cursor M. 26105 And þar-wit-al sum questiones We sal vndo þe merk resons. c 1425 Hampole's Psalter Metr. Pref. 18 Þe sentence is ful merke. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Sept. 103 Such myster saying me seemeth to mirke. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. iv. ii, Mirk despair Made me think life was little worth. 1855 Bailey Spir. Leg. in Mystic, etc. 102 That variable orb, now great with love, And hope, now murk and mean with slavish fear. |
† 2. Having the sight obscured; dim. Obs.
| c 1220 Bestiary 95 Or he it biðenken can, hise eȝen weren mirke. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xvii. 33 Myn ees are woren both marke and blynd. |
3. Dark in colour. rare.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 286 And euerilc on ðat helden wid him, ðo wurðen mirc, and swart, and dim. a 1300 E.E. Psalter xvii. 13 Mirke watres þat ware ofe hewe. a 1849 H. Coleridge Poems (1850) ii. 34 No fault of thine..Clothes thee in weed of penance, murk and dun. 1898 W. K. Johnson Terra Tenebr. 139 Round thee the murk and passionate wave Its waste of foam in vain would fling. |
▪ IV. murk, mirk, v.
(mɜːk)
Forms: see murk a.
[f. murk a. Cf. ON. myrkva to grow dark (possibly the source).]
† 1. intr. To grow dark. Obs.
| 1320–30 Horn. Ch. 81 When that even bicam,..It bigan to mirke. c 1400 Destr. Troy 7809 The night was so nighe,..merkit the mountayns & mores aboute. 1633 J. Fisher True Trojans iii. ix, Gif night gars the welkin merk. |
2. trans. To darken, obscure. lit. and fig. Also to blacken, smudge.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxxxviii. 11 Myrknes sall noght be myrked of þe. c 1450 Cov. Myst. xxii. (Shaks. Soc.) 207 With sum myst his wittys to merke. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. iii. iii, Soon the fleecy clouds mirk a' the skies. 1791 J. Learmont Poems 23 Their sordit sauls mirk't Britain's glory. 1907 Daily News 6 Sept. 6 Happy mites, most of them, for all the dirt which murked their countenances. |
Hence ˈmurking ppl. a., becoming dark.
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) III. 318 Quyetlie about the myrkand nycht,..on to the wall he staw. |