bark

present singular third person barks · participle present barking · participle past barked · past barked · alternative barke

1. intransitiveTo make a short, loud, explosive noise with the vocal organs (said of animals, especially dogs).

   The neighbour's dog is always barking.

   1 more example

   The seal barked as the zookeeper threw fish into its enclosure.

   Synonyms: give tongue, latrate

2. intransitiveTo make a clamor; to make importunate outcries.

   And therefore they bark, and say the scripture maketh heretics.

   1530, Tyndale, A Pathway into the Holy Scripture

   1 more example

   Where there is the barking of the belly, there no other commands will be heard, much less obeyed.

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

3. transitiveTo speak sharply.

   The sergeant barked an order.

   3 more examples

   Plainly he was prepared to bark out an interminable succession of charges against the Wanderer.

   1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 3

   Sudden anger rose in him. “What I’m looking for,” he barked, “is to be left in peace.” His voice trembled with a rage far bigger than her intrusion merited, the rage which shocked him whenever it coursed through his nervous system, like a flood.

   2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5

   While McCarthy prowled the touchline barking orders, his opposite number watched on motionless and expressionless and, with 25 minutes to go, decided to throw on Nicolas Anelka for Kalou.

   2011 January 5, Mark Ashenden, “Wolverhampton 1 - 0 Chelsea”, in BBC

plural barks · alternative barke

1. The short, loud, explosive sound uttered by a dog, a fox, and some other animals.
2. figurativelyAn abrupt loud vocal utterance.

   Fox’s clumsy figure, negligently dressed in blue and buff, seemed unprepossessing; only his shaggy eyebrows added to the expression of his face; his voice would rise to a bark in excitement.

   c. 1921, The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, volume 11

   1 more example

   Long before Shap platform showed up around a corner and the two arms on the gradient post drooped in both directions at once, Duchess of Buccleuch's amiable throbbing purr at the stack [funnel, chimney] had become a fierce freight-engine bark, as she resolutely dragged at her enormous load.

   1949 January and February, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–1”, in Railway Magazine, page 12

3. entertainmentThe quick opening of the hi-hat cymbal as it is hit, followed by its timely closing.
4. countable(video games) A short, repeatable, and unobtrusive voiceline spoken by an NPC.

alternative barke

1. The sound of a dog barking.

   Synonyms: woof

plural barks · alternative barke

1. countableuncountableThe exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree or of various other woody plants.

   Moving about 70 miles per hour, it crashed through the sturdy old-growth trees, snapping their limbs and shredding bark from their trunks.

   2012 December 26, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2013

   1 more example

   The hardships of bark-collecting in the primeval forests of South America are of the severest kind, and undergone only by the half-civilized Indians and people of mixed race, in the pay of speculators or companies located in the towns. Those who are engaged in the business, especially the collectors themselves, are called Cascarilleros or Cascadores, from the Spanish word Cascara, bark.

   1879, Friedrich August Flückiger et al., Pharmacographia..., page 346

   Synonyms: rind

2. countableuncountablemedicinePeruvian bark or Jesuit's bark, the bark of the cinchona from which quinine is produced.
3. countableuncountableHard candy made in flat sheets, for instance out of chocolate, peanut butter, toffee or peppermint.
4. countableuncountableThe crust formed on barbecued meat that has had a rub applied to it.

   This softens the meat further, but at some loss of crunch to the bark.

   2009, Julie Reinhardt, She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book, page 151

5. countableuncountableThe envelopment or outer covering of anything.
6. USWesterncountabledialectaluncountableWoodchips.

present singular third person barks · participle present barking · participle past barked · past barked · alternative barke

1. To strip the bark from; to peel.

   Along the river freshly felled and barked trees told of the activity of beaver, and in slow current and in eddies the tops of their winter's food supply lay like submerged brush fences projecting above the surface.

   1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate

2. To abrade or rub off any outer covering from.

   I barked my shins climbing the fence.

   1 more example

   Barcelona had been harried and hurried and stretched thin by the midway point in the second half. Tackles flew in. Toes were crushed, shins barked, ankles hacked.

   2019 May 8, Barney Ronay, “Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam”, in The Guardian

3. To girdle.
4. To cover or enclose with bark, or as with bark.

   to bark the roof of a hut

plural barks · alternative barque · alternative barke

1. obsoleteA small sailing vessel, e.g. a pinnace or a fishing smack; a rowing boat or barge.

   Nothing then remained for them but to commit their bark to the wind and waves.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 210

2. poeticA sailing vessel or boat of any kind.

   It is the star to every wandering bark

   c. 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

   2 more examples

   We know not where we go, or what sweet dream May pilot us through caverns strange and fair Of far and pathless passion, while the stream Of life our bark doth on its whirlpools bear, Spreading swift wings as sails to the dim air; […]

   1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 272

   Whether my bark went down at sea, / Whether she met with gales, […]

   a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “[Book I.—Life] Whether my bark went down at sea”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, First Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1890, →OCLC, page 38

3. nauticalA vessel, typically with three (or more) masts, with the foremasts (or fore- and mainmasts) square-rigged, and mizzenmast schooner-rigged.

   Europeans would cross the ocean in large barks built for deck space and large holds.

   1997, Mark Kurlansky, Cod, page 114

plural barks · alternative barke

1. obsoleteslangAn Irish person.

1. A surname.