Forms: 1 beorc-an, 3 beork-en, borke-n, berke-n, 3–5 berke, 4 (? breke), 5–7 barke, 6 bercke, 5– bark. Pa. t. 1 ? bearc, pl. burcon, 4–5 burke, borke; berkyd, 5– barked. Pa. pple. 1 borcen, 5– barked. [OE. beorcan, str. vb., repr. an earlier berc-an, *berk-an; cogn. w. OE. borcian ‘to bark,’ and ON. berkja, weak vb. ‘to bark, to bluster.’ Believed by some to be, in its origin, a variant of BREAK, OE. brecan:—OTeut. *brek-an; but if so, the differentiation must have taken place in prehistoric times. Cf. relation of L. fragor crackling noise, clamor, with frag-, frang-ere to break.]
1. intr. To utter a sharp explosive cry. (Orig. of dogs, hence of other animals, and spec. of foxes at rutting-time.) Const. at (on, upon, against, obs.).
c. 885. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xv. 89. Dumbe hundas ne máʓon beorcan.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., xxii. (Zup.), 129. Hund byrcþ.
c. 1205. Lay., 21340. Beorkeð [1250 borkeþ] his hundes.
c. 1330. Kyng of Tars, 398. Ther stod hir bifore An hundred houndes blake, And borken on hire lasse and more.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 47. He koured lowe, to bi-hold … whi his hound berkyd.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 222. Þe whelpus … Burke fast at þe kyng.
1596. Spenser, Astrophel Ægl., 76. Wolues do howle and barke.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 383. Harke, harke, bowgh wawgh: the watch-Dogges barke.
1611. Gwillim, Heraldry, III. xiv. (1660), 166. You shall say a Fox Barketh.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 115, ¶ 9. All the little Dogs in the Street … barked at him.
1877. Bryant, Among Trees, 76. And the brisk squirrel … barks with childish glee.
2. fig. To speak or cry out in a tone or temper that suggests the bark of a dog. To bark against (or at) the moon: to clamor or agitate to no effect. To bark up the wrong tree (in U.S.): to make a mistake in one’s object of pursuit or the means taken to attain it.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 122. Gif þu berkest aȝein þu ert hundes kunnes.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls Ser.), VII. 443. Þey … dorste nouȝt berke [v.r. breke] for drede of oon man.
1549. Compl. Scot., xvi. 139. Ȝe cry & berkis ilk ane contrar vthirs.
a. 1555. Latimer, Serm. & Rem. (1845), 320. It is the scripture and not the translation, that ye bark against.
1655. Heywood, Fort. by Land, I. i. Wks. 1874, VI. 370. He hath such honourable friends to guard him, We should in that but bark against the moon.
1763. Churchill, Apol., Poems I. 68. Though Mimics bark, and Envy split her cheek.
1855. Haliburton, Hum. Nat., 124, in Bartlett, Dict. Amer., If you think to run a rig on me, you have made a mistake in the child, and barked up the wrong tree.
3. mod. colloq. To cough.
† 4. trans. To bark at. Obs. rare.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 170. Gyf hwa þas wyrte mid him hafað … ne mæʓ he fram hundum beon borcen.
† 5. trans. or with subord. cl. (also bark out, forth): To utter or give forth with a bark; to break out with, burst forth with. Obs.
c. 1440. Morte Arth., 1351. He berkes myche boste.
1553–87. Foxe, A. & M., 403. The abominable heresie … which impudently barketh that the ministers of the holy altars may and ought to use wives lawfully.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1594), 212. New imaginations and conceits … which they continually barke foorth.
1591. Spenser, Virg. Gnat, 346. Cerberus, whose many mouthes doo bay And barke out flames.
1644. Sir E. Dering, Prop. Sacr., C iij. Others bark the Counter-tenour.
