Now Sc. and dial. Forms: see the vb. [f. YERK v.]
1. A smart blow or stroke, as of a whip or rod, or of a heavy body falling; a lash; also, the sound of such a blow; the crack of a whip; a thud.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., IV. (Percy Soc.), 18. And in her hande a strong knotted whippe; At every yarke she made hym for to skyppe.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Crepitus plagarum … a yerke, or girke.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. xxiv. 143/2. As soone as the wicked feele but one yirke of the rod with Gods hand.
1593. Churchyard, Challenge, Murton’s Trag., xcix. No wisdomes lore, nor men of noble fame, Can scape thy scourge, it giues so sore a yarke.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 35. They gaue mee the yarke with the spurre.
1682. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 56 (1713), II. 99. Our Province is to lash a rout of wanton and disloyal People; and if any will be outermost, and so get a Yerk that makes ’em smart, let them hereafter learn to hide themselves in the Crowd.
a. 1807. J. Skinner, Amusem. Leis. Hours (1809), 47. Wi’ a yawfu’ yark,… He derfly dang the bark Frae’s shins that day.
1826. T. Wilson, Pitman’s Pay, etc. 80. The blacksmith’s hammer, yark for yark, We hear ne langer bangin’.
1860. Ramsay, Remin. (ed. 7), Pref. p. xxiii. Clinching every decision with the ‘yerk’ of a spadeful of earth on the grave’s brink.
1871. J. Milne, Sel. Poems & Songs, 89. It flew oure the houses like a lark An doun on the fouk’s taes fell wi’ a yark.
fig. 1682. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 82 (1773), II. 249. More out of dread of a Yerk from Heraclitus, than of all the Penalties in the Statute-Book.
1689. Answ. Desertion Disc., in 11th Coll. Papers rel. Pres. Juncture of Affairs, 5. To call the Breach of the Original Contract pretended, and a Popular Flourish, is a yerk of Malitious Reflection.
† b. fig. An impulse, eager desire. Obs. rare–1.
1577. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Chron., 308. Ciucius did much delight to goe on hunting, & had a fine yeark to kill the Bore & other uenerie in the mountaines.
2. The act of lashing out with the heels, as a horse; a kick; a sudden or abrupt movement, a jerk, twitch.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, VI. 120. The horse, That … With many frisks and yerks behinde, his head doth cast aloft.
1618. M. Baret, Hippon., I. 9. There is no foale … but will both leap,… turne loftily, fetch such yarks behind, that it is very delightfull to behold.
1623. Markham, Cheap Husb. (ed. 3), I. ii. 26. With your rod giue him a good ierke vnder the belly … when you please to giue the ierke, he will then giue the yerke.
1679. Shadwell, True Widow, IV. 56. Let’s fight here; I would have my Mistress see how I put in my Pass, and what a yerk I give it.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, IV. xii. 191. Twenty thousand of them … battering the Warriors Faces into Mummy, by terrible Yerks from their hinder Hoofs.
1822. Hogg, Perils of Man, III. 357. He … attacked the couple with his heels, prostrate as they were, yerk for yerk, indiscriminately.
b. A jerking or twitching sensation. ? Obs.
1806. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, ix. (ed. 3), 195. The yerk, or throe, in the throat, that follows your last bumper of port.
1831. Examiner, 290/1. The yerk of the third bottle of hot nastiness [sc. port].
