Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web

hark

- 4 dictionary results

hark

[hahrk]
–verb (used without object)
1. to listen attentively; hearken.
–verb (used with object)
2. Archaic. to listen to; hear.
–noun
3. a hunter's shout to hounds, as to encourage them in following the scent.
4. hark back,
a. (of hounds) to return along the course in order to regain a lost scent.
b. to return to a previous subject or point; revert: He kept harking back to his early days in vaudeville.

Origin:
1175–1225; ME herken, earlier herkien, OE *heorcian; c. OFris herkia, harkia; akin to MD harken, MHG, G horchen. See hearken; hear


4b. refer, allude; regress, retrogress.
hark   (härk)   
intr.v.   harked, hark·ing, harks
To listen attentively.

[Middle English harken, herken, from Old English *heorcian.]

Hark

Hark\, v. i. [OE. herken. See Hearken.] To listen; to hearken. [Now rare, except in the imperative form used as an interjection, Hark! listen.] --Hudibras.

Hark away! Hark back! Hark forward! (Sporting), cries used to incite and guide hounds in hunting.

To hark back, to go back for a fresh start, as when one has wandered from his direct course, or made a digression.

He must have overshot the mark, and must hark back. Haggard. He harked back to the subject. --W. E. Norris.
Language Translation for : hark
Spanish: tenedor,
German: die Gabel,
Japanese: フォーク

hark 
c.1175, from O.E. *heorcian (related to hearken), an intensive form from base of hieran (see hear). To hark back (1829) originally refers to hounds returning along a track when the scent has been lost, till they find it again.
Search another word or see hark on Thesaurus | Reference