bark

Etymology 1

From Middle English barken, berken, borken, from Old English beorcan (“to bark”), from the Proto-Germanic *berkaną (“to bark, rumble”), 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”). recorded barks (noun sense 1) of a dog

verb

1. (intransitive) To make a short, loud, explosive noise with the vocal organs (said of animals, especially dogs).
   The neighbour's dog is always barking.
   The seal barked as the zookeeper threw fish into its enclosure.
2. (intransitive) To 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
3. (transitive) To speak sharply.
   The sergeant barked an order.
   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
   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. January 5, 2011, Mark Ashenden, “Wolverhampton 1 - 0 Chelsea”, in BBC

noun

1. The short, loud, explosive sound uttered by a dog, a fox, and some other animals.
2. (figurative) An 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
   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

Etymology 2

From Middle English bark, from Old English barc (“bark”), from Old Norse bǫrkr (“tree bark”), from Proto-Germanic *barkuz, probably related to *birkijǭ (“birch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰergo- (compare Latin frāxinus (“ash”), Lithuanian béržas (“birch”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰereg- (“to gleam; white”) (compare English bright); akin to Danish bark, Icelandic börkur, Low German borke and Albanian berk (“bast”).

noun

1. (countable, uncountable) The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree.
   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
   Moving about 70 miles per hour, it crashed through the sturdy old-growth trees, snapping their limbs and shredding bark from their trunks. 2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Time
2. (medicine) Peruvian bark or Jesuit's bark, the bark of the cinchona from which quinine is produced.
3. Hard candy made in flat sheets, for instance out of chocolate, peanut butter, toffee or peppermint.
4. The 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. The envelopment or outer covering of anything.

verb

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.
   to bark one’s heel
   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. 8 May 2019, Barney Ronay, “Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam”, in The Guardian
3. To girdle.
4. To cover or inclose with bark, or as with bark.
   bark the roof of a hut

Etymology 3

From Middle English barke (“boat”), from Middle French barque, from Late Latin barca, a regular syncope of Vulgar Latin *barica, from Classical Latin bāris, from Ancient Greek βᾶρις (bâris, “Egyptian boat”), from Coptic ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ (baare, “small boat”), from Demotic br, from Egyptian bꜣjrb-bA-A-y:r*Z1-P1 (“transport ship”). Doublet of barge, barque and baris.

noun

1. (obsolete) A small sailing vessel, e.g. a pinnace or a fishing smack; a rowing boat or barge.
2. (poetic) A sailing vessel or boat of any kind.
   It is the star to every wandering bark c. 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116
3. (nautical) A 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