Link Centre Dictionary

lark

UK/lɑːk/ US/lɑɹk/ fairly common
noun (4) verb (1)

noun

1.

North American yellow-breasted songbirds

Synonyms
2.

small songbirds resembling larks

Synonyms
3.

any of numerous predominantly Old World birds noted for their singing

4.

any carefree episode

Synonyms

verb

1.

play boisterously

  • “The children frolicked in the garden”
  • “the gamboling lambs in the meadows”
  • “The toddlers romped in the playroom”
Synonyms

Origin

Uncertain, either * from a northern English dialectal term lake /laik (“to play”) (around 1300, from Old Norse leika (“to play (as opposed to work)”)), with an intrusive -r- as is common in southern British dialects; or * a shortening of skylark (1809), sailors' slang, "play roughly in the rigging of a ship", because the common European larks were proverbial for high-flying; Dutch has a similar idea in speelvogel (“playbird, a person of markedly playful nature”).

Phrases

  • Beesley's lark
  • blow this for a lark
  • calandra lark
  • crested lark
  • day lark
  • fuck this for a lark
  • gay as a lark
  • greater short-toed lark
  • happy as a lark
  • horned lark
  • lark about
  • lark around

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

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.