▪ I. bark, n.1
(bɑːk)
Forms: 4– bark; also 4 barc, 4–7 barke, 6 barcke, 7 barque.
[a. Scand. bark- (ON. börkr, Sw., Da. bark):—OTeut. *barku-z.]
1. a. The rind or outer sheath of the trunk and branches of trees, formed of tissue parallel with the wood. See quot. 1866.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 1321 Braunches..o bark al bare. c 1400 Mandeville xvii. 189 Men hewen the Trees..tille that the Bark be parted. 1535 Coverdale Joel i. 7 They shal pyll of the barckes of my fygetrees. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xiii. 304 He is no friend to the tree, that strips it of the bark. 1675 Grew Anat. Trunks i. ii. §1 The Trunk..hath Three general Parts..the Barque, the Wood, and the Pith. 1866 Treas. Bot. 123 The only true bark is that of Exogens. In Endogens, False Bark, also called Cortical Integument, stands in place of bark. |
b. That used as a material in dyeing, tanning, etc., or its bruised residue, ‘spent bark,’ ‘tan.’
| 1565 Act 8 Eliz. xi. §3 No Person..shall dye..black, any Cap, with Bark or Swarf. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. i. 12 Men which tan the hides of beasts..take y⊇ barkes of Oake. 1716 Lond Gaz. No. 5393/4 Bark is worth 2s. a Cart-Load. Mod. The street opposite the sick man's house was laid with bark. |
c. A sort or piece of bark.
| 1647 W. Browne Polex. ii. 116 Two great chaines of rootes and black barks he had about his neck. |
† 2. The rind, husk, or shell of fruit and grains.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 251 On a walnot with-oute is a bitter barke. c 1440 Gesta Rom. lvi. 419 The ape wil gladly ete the kyrnelle of the note..but when he sauours the soure barke, etc. 1586 Cogan Haven Health (1636) 34 A good handfull of Oaten barke. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 22 Wine in which the barks of a sweet pomegranat are. |
† 3. gen. An outer covering or husk; esp. a superficial crust or incrustation. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 45 In the lake Velinus..if wood be thrown in, it is couered ouer with a stony barke. 1725 Pope Odyss. xiii. 457 O'er thy smooth skin a bark of wrinkles spread. 1878 Halliwell Dict., Bark, the tartar deposited by bottled wine or other liquor encrusting the bottle. |
4. dial. and slang. The (human) skin.
| a 1758 A. Ramsay Poems (1844) 88 And dang the bark Aff's shin. 1876 Fam. Herald 2 Dec. 80/1 With the ‘bark’ all off his shins from a blow with a hockey stick. |
5. fig. Envelopment; outer covering; outside, external part. arch.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 201 Yboundyn in the blakke barke of care. c 1400 Rom. Rose 7173 The bark and rynde, That makith the entenciouns blynde. 1587 Golding De Mornay xxv. 379 Such a Lawgiuer, as not onely had power ouer the barke of man. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 68 The Jews..stick in the barke, and expound the text to be fulfilled to the very letter of it. |
6. phr. to go (etc.) between the bark and the tree.
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 47 It were a foly for mee, To put my hande betweene the barke and the tree..Betweene you. 1600 Holland Livy xxxvi. v. 921 To deale roundly and simply with no side, but to go between the bark and the tree. 1642 Rogers Naaman 303 So audacious as to go betweene barke and tree, breeding suspitions..betweene man and wife. 1804 M. Edgeworth Mod. Griselda Wks. 1832 V. 299 An instigator of quarrels between man and wife, or, according to the plebeian but expressive apophthegm, one who would come between the bark and the tree. [Cf. Halliwell Dict. s.v., ‘Between the bark and the wood,’ a well-adjusted bargain, where neither party has the advantage.] |
7. spec. in Med. (also Jesuits' Bark or Peruvian Bark): The bark of various species of the Cinchona tree, from which quinine is procured, formerly ground into powder and taken as a febrifuge.
| 1704 Watts Life of Souls, When bark and steel play well their game To save our sinking breath. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) II. 344 Your Jesuits' Bark had proved a golden Bough. 1790 Cook's Voy. VI. 2241 That excellent medicine, Peruvian bark. 1852 Thackeray Esmond iii. viii. (1876) 393, I have known a woman preach Jesuit's bark. |
| fig. 1790 Boswell Johnson (1811) I. 195 In no writings whatever can be found more bark and steel for the mind. |
8. north. dial. A candle-box. (See quot.)
| 1878 Halliwell Dict., Bark, a cylindrical receptacle for candles; a candle-box. North. At first it was only a piece of bark nailed up against the wall. |
9. Comb. General relations: a. attrib. or objective, as in bark-cloth, bark-dust, bark-mill, bark-puller, bark-string, bark-vat, bark-water, bark-wose. b. instrumental or limitative, as in bark-bared, bark-feeder, bark-formed, bark-tanned, bark-tanning.
| a. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 24 Barkarys barkewatyr, naucea. 1483 Cath. Angl. 22/1 Barke duste or wose, frunium, ptipsana. 1569 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1835) 307, Xl barke fatts xiijl. vjs. viijd. 1773 Barnard in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 218 The bark-pullers..were..alarmed by the shaking. 1854 J. Stephens Centr. Amer. 13 Tied together with bark-strings. 1864 J. A. Grant Walk across Africa 138 Or an Arab cloak or shawl of bark-cloth hung from his shoulder, reaching below the knee. 1880 I. L. Bird Japan II. 82 A skin or bark-cloth vest. 1885 Harper's Mag. Jan. 276/1 Most tanners..grind it in a bark-mill. 1951 R. Firth Elements of Social Organization ii. 51 The people still wear their traditional bark-cloth, made from the fibrous inner bark of the paper-mulberry tree. |
| b. ? 1712 J. Mortimer (J.) Excorticated and bark-bared trees. 1818 Art Preserv. Feet 112 The ancient system of bark tanning. 1858 W. Ellis Vis. Madagascar ii. 25 These bark-formed boards were laid side by side. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. iv. (1878) 66 We see leaf-eating insects green, and bark-feeders mottled grey. 1883 Pall Mall G. 5 July 5/2 Bark-tanned goods. |
10. Special combinations: bark-bed, a hot-bed made of spent bark from a tannery; bark-beetle, any beetle of the family Scolytidæ, the members of which burrow beneath the bark of woody plants; bark-borer U.S., a species of bark-beetle; bark-bound a., hindered in growth by excessive tightness of the bark; bark canoe U.S., a canoe made of birch-bark; † bark-cobill (Ger. kubel), a bark-vat; bark-galling (see quot.); bark-heat, that of a bark-bed; bark-house, one in which bark is stored, a tan-house; bark-hut, a hut built with the bark of trees; bark-louse U.S., any one of a number of aphids infesting the bark of trees; bark-mill U.S., a mill in which tanning bark is ground; bark-peeler, (a) a person who peels bark from a tree; (b) an implement for peeling bark; bark-pit, a pit filled with bark and water in which hides are steeped in tanning; bark-stone = castor1 2; bark-stove, a glazed structure placed over a bark-bed; bark-tree, English name of the Cinchonas; bark-worm (= bark-louse).
| 1732 Miller Gard. Kal. (1775) 70 The Coffee-trees..are placed in the *bark-bed. |
| 1862 T. W. Harris Insects Injur. Veget. 85 Though these cylindrical *bark-beetles are of small size, they multiply very fast. 1953 H. L. Edlin Forester's Handbk. xvi. 264 A very large group known as bark beetles, because they feed and breed in and beneath the bark of living or dead trees. |
| 1859 Trans. Ill. Agric. Soc. 1857–8 III. 345 Another species is that sometimes called the *bark borer, from its feeding exclusively upon the cambium immediately beneath the bark. |
| 1615 W. Lawson Orch. & Gard. iii. xiii. (1668) 42 *Bark-bound, a disease in trees. 1673 Grew Anat. Roots ii. §2 Therefore are the Roots of many Herbs, Barque-bound, as well as the Trunks of Trees. 1831 On Planting ii. vi. 63 in Libr. Useful Knowl., To secure against any chill or sudden effect of cold, so as to bring about..the injury of being bark-bound, the most effectual impediment to growth either in height or thickness. |
| 1725 in Lancaster (Mass.) Rec. (1884) 232, 27 day we traveld down the river and found a *bark cannow. 1888 Harper's Mag. Mar. 537/1 But only a bark canoe now and then comes along from one of the thirteen rivers. |
| c 1550 Sir J. Balfour Practicks 588 The sype of thair *bark cobill. |
| 1742 Bailey, *Bark-galling is when trees are galled by being bound to stakes. |
| 1781 Cowper To Mrs. Hill 19 Feb., I shall..keep them [seeds]..in a *bark heat. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 22/1 *Barkhowse, frunitorium. 1541 Lanc. Wills I. 81 In y⊇ barkhouse fyve dikar..tanned. 1660 Boston Rec. 155 Henry Bridgam..sett part of his barke house upon part of the townes land. 1721 Boston Selectmen 83 Liberty..to erect a bark house near Snow Hill. 1824 in Thornton Amer. Gloss. Suppl., A bark-house, and a good iron bark-mill. |
| 1744 F. Moore Voy. Georgia 123 Some *bark-huts, which our friendly Indians had some time since built for their lodging. 1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase i. 2 We..talked of bark huts and bows and arrows. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right vi. 61 Bark-huts, of which both sides, and sometimes doors are composed of sheets of the flattened eucalyptus bark. |
| 1841 in Johnson Farm Encycl. (1868) 137/2 (D.A.E.), The *bark lice are found apparently torpid..sticking..closely to the bark. 1959 Southwood & Leston Land & Water Bugs vi. 153 They [sc. Emesinæ] may also feed on insects already trapped in spiders' webs and they can attack bark-lice (Psocids) through their web. |
| 1749 J. Eliot Field-Husb. (1934) ii. 37 Take your Clover Hay to a Tanners *Bark-mill, where they use a Stone Wheel, grind it. 1885 Bark-mill [see sense 9 a]. |
| 1862 Rep. Comm. Patents: Agric. (U.S.) 414 Tanneries sprang into existence..and the *bark-peelers and teamsters..made the whole region one of active and prosperous industry. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 376/1 All textile work [of American Indians] was done by hand; the only devices known were the bark-peeler, the shredder [etc.]. 1925 Hemingway In our Time (1926) i. 18 The shanties where the Indian bark-peelers lived. 1961 M. W. Barley Eng. Farmhouse & Cottage i. ii. 36 In Cumberland some sixty years ago barkpeelers built themselves huts which consisted of four poles lashed in pairs to support a ridge piece. |
| 1805 M. Lewis in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1904) III. 319 The male beaver has six stones, two of which..are called the *bark stones or castors. 1817 Ann. Reg. 1816 551/2 To prepare beaver-bait, the castor or bark stone is first gently pressed from the bladder-like bag which contains it. Ibid. 552/1 The bark stones are two inches in length. |
| 1732 Miller Gard. Kal. (1775) 159 Exotic plants..especially those in the *bark-stove. |
| 1783 Davidson in Phil. Trans. LXXIV. 455 (article) *Bark-Tree. 1852 Th. Ross Humboldt's Trav. I. ii. 59 note, The orange bark-tree (Cinchona lancifolia)..the red bark-tree (C. oblongifolia). |
| 1655 Mouff. & Benn. Health's Impr. (1746) 188 Titmice feed..upon Caterpillars, *Bark-Worms and Flies. 1787 Best Angling 19 Bark-worm or Ashgrub, found under the bark of an oak, ash, or beech. |
▪ II. bark, barque, n.2
(bɑːk)
Forms: 5–7 barke, 5– barque, 6– bark.
[a. F. barque, 15th c. ad. Pr., Sp., or It. barca:—L. barca (in Paulinus Nolanus c 400). Not in OFr., where the word used was barge.
Barge and bark are probably identical in origin, and possibly from Celtic; Thurneysen shows that OIr. barc (a fem. a-stem) may, if native, represent an original *barga, with dialectal by-form *barca, which would satisfactorily account at once for OF. barge, and the common Romanic barca. Diez takes barca as an early syncopated variant of the conjectural *bārica, mentioned under barge, but as barca occurs c 400 and *bārica not at all, this is improbable. As to the original meaning, Isidore, c 640, says ‘Barca est, quae cuncta navis commercia ad litus portat. Hanc navis in pelago propter nimias undas suo suscipit gremio.’ So Florio (1598) explains It. barca as ‘a barke, boate, wherrie, or lighter’; ed. 1611 has ‘any kinde of Barke, Barge, or Boate’; Minsheu (1623) explains Sp. barca as ‘a great boat, a barke, a skiffe, a hoarse boat’; and Cotgr. (1611) has Fr. barque ‘a barque, little ship, great boat.’ Cf. barge n.1 2–4. The barca was thus apparently, originally, a large ship's boat, used as a lighter; on the Mediterranean, the name continued to be applied to an open boat, even while extended to a small vessel with sails; the latter was the sense with which the word was taken from French into English, and which it still retains both in general and specific use; but in the end of 16th c., the more primitive sense of ‘large rowing boat, barge’ was reintroduced from the languages of the Mediterranean.]
1. A small ship; in earlier times, a general term for all sailing vessels of small size, e.g. fishing-smacks, xebecs, pinnaces; in modern use, applied poetically or rhetorically to any sailing vessel, ‘our gallant bark’; = barge 1.
| 1475 Caxton Jason 104 Some sayd that Iason was rentred in to the barque. 1494 Fabyan vii. ccxliv. 286 Flemynges: the whiche shyppyd them in smalle caruyles and barkys. 1552 Huloet, Barke or little shyppe, lembus. 1585 Act 27 Eliz. ii. §9 Every Owner and Master of any Ship, Bark or Boat. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. vi. 15 The skarfed barke puts from her natiue bay. 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis ii. x. 93 A Pirate's Bark, well trimmed and rigged against stormes. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 288 Whose Bark..Or Pinnace, anchors in a craggy Bay. a 1687 Petty Pol. Arith. iii. (1691) 59 Seamen..do sometimes Sail in small Barks, sometimes in midling Ships, and sometimes in great Vessels of Defence. 1718 Pope Iliad i. 182 We launch a bark to plough the watery plains. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Bark, a general name given to small ships. 1851 Dixon W. Penn xvii. (1872) 142 Who had crossed the Atlantic in their barks. |
b. fig. (Cf. ship, vessel.)
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. 70 Many other barques of knowledge haue beene cast away. c 1800 K. White Lett. (1837) 323 The poor bark of mortality. 1821 Shelley Adonais lv, My spirit's bark is driven, Far from the shore. |
2. A rowing boat; formerly a large flat boat, a barge; now only poetically and vaguely; cf. sense 1.
| 1598 Barret Theor. Warres v. iv. 136 One cart to cary a bridge bark [i.e. for constructing a bridge]. 1611 Cotgr., Barque, a barke, little ship, great boat. 1715 Lond. Gaz. No. 5384/7 A Distribution was made among the Fleet of the Barks for landing the Infantry and the Shallops for towing those Barks. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 63 Let him not send us to sea..in an open barque, and without a pilot. 1790 Cowper Iliad i. 174 A bark with lusty rowers well supplied. 1813 Scott Rokeby ii. xxxi, The..swain May lightly row his bark to shore. |
3. spec. A sailing vessel of particular rig; in 17th c. sometimes applied to the barca-longa of the Mediterranean; now to a three-masted vessel with fore- and main-masts square-rigged, and mizenmast ‘fore-and-aft’ rigged: till recent times a comparatively small vessel; now there are many of 3,000 to 5,000 tons, nearly all the larger steamers being barks. (In this sense frequently spelt barque by way of distinction.)
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 190 The Cyrenians made fregates; the Phœnicians the bark, the Rhodians the Pinace and Brigantine. 1628 Hobbes Thucyd. (1822) 23 You had want of long barks against the æginetæ. 1687 Lond. Gaz. No. 2228/1 Four Gallies, 4 Galiots, 2 Barques, and some other Vessels are fitting here. Ibid. No. 2248/1 The Bark that attends these Gallies is laden with Ammunition..and has likewise on board 30 Soldiers. 1722 Ibid. No. 6096/1 A French Snow or Bark..The said Snow had two Masts, and is of the Burthen of 50 or 60 Tons. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Bark..is peculiarly appropriated by seamen to those which carry three masts without a mizen top-sail. Ibid., Pinasse, a square-sterned vessel, called in England a bark. 1771 Phil. Trans. LXI. 422 On board the Endeavour Bark, in a Voyage round the World. 1840 Marryat Olla Podr. (Rtldg.) 331 It was not the brig, but a bark. 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. II. xxix. 292 A steamer and a barque passed up. |
4. Comb., as † bark-man, a bargeman, a lighterman; bark-rigged a., rigged like a barque.
| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 227 When they are laden, the Barke-Men thrust the boate with her lading into the streame. 1858 Merc. Mar. Mag. V. 243 The Ava was..barque-rigged. |
▪ III. bark, n.3
(bɑːk)
[f. bark v.1]
1. The sharp explosive cry uttered by dogs; the similar sound made by other animals, e.g. foxes and squirrels.
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 56 At euery dogs barke, seeme not to awake. 1796 Southey Occas. Pieces vii. Wks. II. 231 From many a day-dream has thy short quick bark Recall'd my wandering soul. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. i. 3 The dog's bark and howl signify..very different things. |
2. a. transf. or fig.; e.g. the sound of cannon-firing; colloq. a cough.
| 1871 Echo 9 Jan. 5/1 The deep bark of our monster war-dogs. Mod. What a desperate bark you have! Try some jujubes. |
b. contrasted with bite, esp. in phr. his bark is worse than his bite: his angry words, threats, etc. are worse than the actual performance.
| 1663 Lauderd. Papers (1884) I. 131 It..is intended that that letter shall be a great bark if not a byt. 1816 Scott Antiq. II. vii. 186 ‘Monkbarns's bark,’ said Miss Griselda Oldbuck..‘is muckle waur than his bite.’ 1842 De Quincey Cicero Wks. VI. 184 The bark of electioneering mobs is worse than their bite. |
▪ IV. bark, v.1
(bɑːk)
Forms: 1 beorc-an, 3 beorken, borke-n, berke-n, 3–5 berke, 4 (? breke), 5–7 barke, 6 bercke, 5– bark. pa. tense 1? bearc, pl. burcon, 4–5 burke, borke; berkyd, 5– barked. pa. pple. 1 borcen, 5– barked.
[OE. beorcan, str. vb., repr. an earlier berc-an, *berk-an; cogn. w. OE. borcian ‘to bark,’ and ON. berkja, weak vb. ‘to bark, to bluster.’ Believed by some to be, in its origin, a variant of break, OE. brecan:—OTeut. *brek-an; but if so, the differentiation must have taken place in prehistoric times. Cf. relation of L. fragor crackling noise, clamour, with frag-, frang-ere to break.]
1. intr. To utter a sharp explosive cry. (Orig. of dogs, hence of other animals, and spec. of foxes at rutting-time.) Const. at (on, upon, against, obs.).
| c 885 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. xv. 89 Dumbe hundas ne máᵹon beorcan. c 1000 ælfric Gram. xxii. (Zup.) 129 Hund byrcþ. 1205 Lay. 21340 Beorkeð [1250 borkeþ] his hundes. c 1330 Kyng of Tars 398 Ther stod hir bifore An hundred houndes blake, And borken on hire lasse and more. c 1350 Will. Palerne 47 He koured lowe, to bi-hold..whi his hound berkyd. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 222 Þe whelpus..Burke fast at þe kyng. 1596 Spenser Astrophel ægl. 76 Wolues do howle and barke. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 383 Harke, harke, bowgh wawgh: the watch-Dogges barke. 1611 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xiv. (1660) 166 You shall say a Fox Barketh. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 115 ¶9 All the little Dogs in the Street..barked at him. 1877 Bryant Among Trees 76 And the brisk squirrel..barks with childish glee. |
2. a. fig. To speak or cry out in a tone or temper that suggests the bark of a dog. to bark against (or at) the moon: to clamour or agitate to no effect. to bark up the wrong tree (orig. U.S.): to make a mistake in one's object of pursuit or the means taken to attain it.
| c 1230 Ancr. R. 122 Gif þu berkest aȝein þu ert hundes kunnes. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) VII. 443 Þey..dorste nouȝt berke [v.r. breke] for drede of oon man. 1549 Compl. Scot. xvi. 139 Ȝe cry & berkis ilk ane contrar vthirs. a 1555 Latimer Serm. & Rem. (1845) 320 It is the scripture and not the translation, that ye bark against. 1655 Heywood Fort. by Land i. i. Wks. 1874 VI. 370 He hath such honourable friends to guard him, We should in that but bark against the moon. 1763 Churchill Apol. Poems I. 68 Though Mimics bark, and Envy split her cheek. 1832 J. Hall Leg. West 46 You are barking up the wrong tree, Johnson. 1855 Haliburton Hum. Nat. 124 in Bartlett Dict. Amer., If you think to run a rig on me, you have made a mistake in the child, and barked up the wrong tree. 1887 N. & Q. 17 Sept. 221 Mr. Rye is barking up the wrong tree. 1899 [see lumber v.1 1]. 1961 Technology Feb. 31/1 Her researches show the Government to be barking up the wrong tree. |
b. To call out or ‘spiel’ at the entrance of a cheap shop or show to attract customers. (Cf. barker1 2.) U.S.
| 1904 G. V. Hobart Jim Hickey v. 84 We could make sandwich money in front of a hootchy-kooch palace, barking at the Rubes. 1908 K. McGaffey Sorrows of Show-Girl 16 By gum, I'd take a job barking for a snake race. 1917 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox I. xiii. 224 Pat, ready to take tickets, was ‘barking’ vigorously{ddd}addressing crowd. 1948 Time 19 July 90/2 [It] was another triumph for Liberty's brand of mass production plus carnival barking. |
3. mod. colloq. a. To cough.
b. To emit an explosive sound, esp. of a fire-arm.
| 1853 F. W. Thomas J. Randolph 132 These boats bark so you can hardly hear yourself talk. 1907 S. E. White Arizona Nights iii. xiii. 342 The Colt's forty-five barked once, and then again. |
† 4. trans. To bark at. Obs. rare.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 170 Gyf hwa þas wyrte mid him hafað..ne mæᵹ he fram hundum beon borcen. |
5. trans. or with subord. clause (also bark out, bark forth): To utter or give forth with a bark; to break out with, burst forth with.
| c 1440 Morte Arth. 1351 He berkes myche boste. 1553–87 Foxe A. & M. 403 The abominable heresie..which impudently barketh that the ministers of the holy altars may and ought to use wives lawfully. 1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1594) 212 New imaginations and conceits..which they continually barke foorth. 1591 Spenser Virg. Gnat 346 Cerberus, whose many mouthes doo bay And barke out flames. 1644 Sir E. Dering Prop. Sacr. C iij, Others bark the Counter-tenour. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 33 The dog bark'd a welcome. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 170 Bark an answer, Britain's raven! 1916 ‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 131 Both the muzzles tilted a little and barked off another flight of shells. 1922 N. & Q. 12th Ser. XI. 206/2 A stable secret which has leaked out and is common property is referred to as ‘the dogs are barking it’. |
6. To drive away or back by barking.
| 1829 M. Mitford in The Gem 195 Frisk's own doggish exploit in barking away a set of pilferers. 1891 Meredith One of our Conq. II. iii. 42 The Dog..would have barked the breathing intruder an hundredfold back to earth. |
▪ V. bark, v.2
(bɑːk)
[f. bark n.1; cf. Sw. barka, Da. berke, to tan.]
1. intr. (with over) To form a bark.
| c 1340 Cursor M. (Fairf.) 11824 And wiþ skratting he toke þe skurf, he barked ouer as a turfe. |
2. trans. To treat with bark, steep in an infusion of bark; to tan.
| 1430 [See barked 2]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 25 Barkyn lethyr, frunio, tanno. 1503–4 Act 19 Hen. VII, xix. Pream., Whedder the ledder be sufficiantly tanned and barked. 1565 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1835) 244 One hyde y{supt} he had to barke for me. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 152 They buy leather & barks it. 1865 Routledge's Mag. Boys Nov. 687 A cellar..used for the purpose of barking the nets of the fishermen. |
3. To strip off the bark from (a tree); to cut off a complete circle of bark from it, so as to kill it.
| 1545 Act 37 Hen. VIII, vi. §4 If any Person..unlawfully bark any Apple-trees. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 541 If trees be barked round about, they will die. 1796 C. Marshall Garden. (1813) 429 Mice..are apt to bark and to kill young trees. 1877 Browning La Saisiaz 373 Barked the bole, and broke the bough. |
b. fig.
| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 72 Would barke your honor from that trunke you beare, And leaue you naked. |
c. transf. To scrape or rub off the skin (esp. from the shins and joints); to graze, abrade.
| 1850 B. Taylor Eldorado xvii. (1862) 171 Barking my hand on the rough bark of a branchless pine. 1880 Besant & Rice Seamy Side xxvii. 227 He had barked his elbows, broken his shins. |
4. To enclose with or as with bark; to encrust.
| 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Pet. ii. 19 (1865) 544/2 Those anchorites that have barked up themselves in hollow trees. 1814 Cary Dante 90 From head to foot A tetter bark'd them round. 1840 De Quincey Style Wks. XI. 177 Some scaly leprosy..barking and hide-binding..the elastic flesh. |
5. to bark (a squirrel, etc.): see quot.
| [1828 Audubon Ornithol. I. 294 A common way of killing squirrels is..to strike with the ball the bark of the tree immediately beneath the squirrel; the concussion produced by which kills the animal instantly without mutilating it.] 1865 Sala in Daily Tel. 29 May, Fellows that with their heavy barrels and small-bores can ‘bark a squirrel.’ |
▪ VI. † bark, v.3 Obs. rare.
[f. bark n.2; cf. OF. barquer to convey in a barge or bark.]
To embark.
| 1592 W. Wyrley Armorie 36 Which valiant Earle Plantagenet namde At Hampton barkt, at Burdeux doth arive. |