Barking
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The action of the verb to bark.
"Old pigtailed seamen would tell of horseshoes found in the meat casks; of curious barkings and neighings heard in the slaughter-houses; and of negroes who disappeared near the victualling yards, to be seen no more."
- 1 present participle and gerund of bark form-of, gerund, participle, present
- 1 Clipping of barking mad. British, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, slang
"He’s going to run the marathon in this hot weather dressed as Donald Duck – he must be barking!"
- 1 A town in the borough of Barking and Dagenham, in eastern Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ4484).
- 2 A village and civil parish in Mid Suffolk district, Suffolk, England (OS grid ref TM0753).
Example
More examples"If we let our reasoning power be overshadowed by our emotions, we would be barking up the wrong tree all the time."
Etymology
From Middle English berkyng, berkande, equivalent to bark + -ing.
From Middle English berkyng, berking, berkynge, equivalent to bark + -ing.
Compare older names such as Medieval Latin Berchingae (from the Domesday Book) and Latin Berecingum.
Related phrases
More for "barking"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.