Link Centre Dictionary

bark

UK/bɑːk/ US/bɑɹk/ fairly common slang us
noun (4) verb (5)

noun

1.

tough protective covering of the woody stems and roots of trees and other woody plants

2.

a noise resembling the bark of a dog

3.

a sailing ship with 3 (or more) masts

Synonyms
4.

the sound made by a dog

verb

1.

speak in an unfriendly tone

  • “She barked into the dictaphone”
2.

cover with bark

3.

remove the bark of a tree

Synonyms
4.

make barking sounds

  • “The dogs barked at the stranger”
5.

tan (a skin) with bark tannins

Origin

From Middle English barken, berken, borken, from Old English beorcan (“to bark”), from the Proto-West Germanic *berkan (“to bark”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerg- (“to make a noise, growl, bark”), from *bʰer- (“to drone, hum, buzz”). Cognate with Icelandic berkja (“to bark, bluster”), Icelandic barki (“throat, windpipe”), dialectal Lithuanian burgė́ti (“to growl, grumble, grouch, quarrel”), Serbo-Croatian brbljati (“to murmur”). For the noun, compare Old English beorc, bearce (“barking”).

Phrases

  • all bark and no bite
  • all bark but no bite
  • all bark no bite
  • bark at print Terms derived from bark verb
  • bark at the wrong tree Terms derived from bark verb
  • bark bed
  • bark beetle
  • bark bread
  • bark collar
  • bark dust
  • bark louse
  • bark mill

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.