bark

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.”

   “Where there is the barking of the belly, there no other commands will be heard, much less obeyed.”

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.”

   “Sudden anger rose in him. “What I’m looking for,” he barked, “is to be left in peace.” His voice trembled with a rage far bigger than her intrusion merited, the rage which shocked him whenever it coursed through his nervous system, like a flood.”

   “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.”

4. 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.”

5. 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.”

6. To girdle.
7. To cover or inclose with bark, or as with bark.

   “to bark the roof of a hut”

noun

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

   “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.”

3. The quick opening of the hi-hat cymbal as it is hit, followed by its timely closing.
4. (countable, uncountable)The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree or of various other woody plants.

   “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.”

   “Moving about 70 miles per hour, it crashed through the sturdy old-growth trees, snapping their limbs and shredding bark from their trunks.”

5. (countable, uncountable)Peruvian bark or Jesuit's bark, the bark of the cinchona from which quinine is produced.
6. (countable, uncountable)Hard candy made in flat sheets, for instance out of chocolate, peanut butter, toffee or peppermint.
7. (countable, uncountable)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.”

8. (countable, uncountable)The envelopment or outer covering of anything.
9. (US, Western, countable, dialectal, uncountable)Woodchips.
10. (obsolete)A small sailing vessel, e.g. a pinnace or a fishing smack; a rowing boat or barge.

    “Nothing then remained for them but to commit their bark to the wind and waves.”

11. (poetic)A sailing vessel or boat of any kind.

    “It is the star to every wandering bark”

    “We know not where we go, or what sweet dream May pilot us through caverns strange and fair Of far and pathless passion, while the stream Of life our bark doth on its whirlpools bear, Spreading swift wings as sails to the dim air; […]”

    “Whether my bark went down at sea, / Whether she met with gales, […]”

12. 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.”

13. (obsolete, slang)An Irish person.

intj

1. The sound of a dog barking.

name

1. A surname.