Harken
name, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Alternative spelling of hearken: to hear, to listen, to have regard. US, alt-of, alternative, ambitransitive
"Ev'n from the depths of Hell the Damn'd advance, / Th' Infernal Manſions nodding ſeem to dance; / The gaping three-mouth'd Dog forgets to ſnarl, / The Furies harken, and their Snakes uncurl."
- 2 listen; used mostly in the imperative wordnet
- 3 To hark back, to return or revert (to a subject, etc.), to allude to, to evoke, to long or pine for (a past event or era). US, figuratively, intransitive
"Bell argued that the manual approach was "backwards," and harkened to a primitive age where humans used gesture and pantomime."
- 1 A surname from German.
Example
More examples"There, in a temple built of ancient stone / I worship: "Grant, Thymbrean lord divine, / a home, a settled city of our own, / walls to the weary, and a lasting line, / to Troy another Pergamus. Incline / and harken. Save these Dardans sore-distrest, / the remnant of Achilles' wrath. Some sign / vouchsafe us, whom to follow? where to rest? / Steal into Trojan hearts, and make thy power confessed.""
Etymology
See hearken
Borrowed from North German Harken.