yark

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /jɑːk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)k

Etymology 1

From Middle English ȝarken, ȝerken, from Old English ġearcian (“to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply”), Proto-West Germanic *garwakōn, from Proto-Germanic *garwakōną (“to prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to grab, take, rake”), equivalent to yare +‎ -k. Related to Old English ġearc (“ready, active, quick”), ġearu (“prepared, ready, equipped, complete, finished, yare”). More at yare.

Verb

yark (third-person singular simple present yarks, present participle yarking, simple past and past participle yarked)

1. (transitive, UK dialectal) To make ready; prepare.
   • 1881, Walter Gregor, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland:

     [...] Yet thou hast given us leather to yark, and leather to bark, [...]

2. (transitive, obsolete) To dispose; be set in order for; be destined or intended for.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To set open; open.

Derived terms

• yarking

Etymology 2

Uncertain, probably originally imitative; compare jerk etc.

Alternative forms

• yerk

Verb

yark (third-person singular simple present yarks, present participle yarking, simple past and past participle yarked)

1. To draw (stitches etc.) tight.
2. To hit, strike, especially with a cane or whip.
3. To crack (a whip).
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
     , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.96:

     he would throw a Dagger, and make a whip to yarke and lash [tr. faisoit craqueter], as cunningly as any Carter in France.

Anagrams

• aryk, kray, Kary, kary-, raky, Kyra, Kray

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English arke, from Old English ærc, from Latin arca (“chest, box, coffer”). Compare also yart (“art”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jɔːk/

Noun

yark

1. (figurative) barn

   Synonym: barrn

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 79