[app. short. from chark coal, which appears soon after 1500, for CHARCOAL, q.v. No independent origin of the word appears. Cf. CHARK v.2]
1. Wood or coal charred; charcoal; coke.
1708–15. Kersey, Charks (in Worcester-shire) Pit-coal chark’d, or charr’d.
1714. Fr. Bk. of Rates, 38. Coals-Chark per Maund, 01 06.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, xii. I contriv’d to burn some Wood … under Turf, until it became Chark, or dry Coal.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 223. Wood burned to Chark is a real poison.
2. (See quot.) (Perh. a distinct word.)
1872. Hardwick, Trad. Lanc., 35. The discoverer of the Chark or ‘fire-drill,’ an instrument for obtaining fire by artificial means.
