Refine this word faster
Lark
Definitions
- 1 A surname transferred from the nickname, from lark as a byname or for a catcher and seller of larks.
- 2 Alternative form of Larak (“island off the coast of Iran”). alt-of, alternative
- 3 A surname originating as a patronymic shortened from Larkin, a medieval diminutive of Laurence.
- 4 A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
- 5 A female given name from English from the lark bird.
"Mama had chosen the name Lark. Lark Browning Erhardt. Papa had wanted to call me Beverly Mary; Mary after the Blessed Virgin. Mama said she wouldn't hang a name like Beverly Mary on a pet skunk. Where she got the idea for Lark, I don't know, though one time when I asked, she said that larks flew high and had a happy song."
Show 1 more definition
- 6 A river in England, on the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
- 1 Any of various small, singing passerine birds of the family Alaudidae.
- 2 A frolic or romp, some fun.
"‘Ha! ha!’ laughed Master Bates, ‘what a lark that would be, wouldn’t it, Fagin? I say, how the Artful would bother ’em wouldn’t he?’"
- 3 any carefree episode wordnet
- 4 Any of various similar-appearing birds, but usually ground-living, such as the meadowlark and titlark.
- 5 A prank.
"doolittle. […] [T]hanks to your silly joking, he leaves me a share in his Pre-digested Cheese Trust worth three thousand a year on condition that I lecture for his Wannafeller Moral Reform World League as often as they ask me up to six times a year. / higgins. The devil he does! Whew! [Brightening suddenly] What a lark!"
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 any of numerous predominantly Old World birds noted for their singing wordnet
- 7 One who wakes early; one who is up with the larks. broadly
- 8 a songbird that lives mainly on the ground in open country; has streaky brown plumage wordnet
- 9 A jolly or peppy person.
"Charles Randolph Grean is married to pop lark and multi-hit artist Betty Johnson."
- 10 North American songbirds having a yellow breast wordnet
- 1 To catch larks (type of bird).
"to go larking"
- 2 To sport, engage in harmless pranking.
"[T]hey laugh at us old boys,” thought old Pendennis. And he was not far wrong; the times and manners which he admired were pretty nearly gone—the gay young men “larked” him irreverently […]"
- 3 play boisterously wordnet
- 4 To frolic, engage in carefree adventure.
Etymology
From Middle English larke, laverke, from Old English lāwerce, lǣwerce, lāuricæ, from Proto-West Germanic *laiwarikā, from Proto-Germanic *laiwarikǭ, *laiwazikǭ (compare dialectal West Frisian larts, Dutch leeuwerik, German Lerche), from *laiwaz (borrowed into Finnish leivo, Estonian lõo), of unknown ultimate origin with no definitive cognates outside of Germanic.
From Middle English larke, laverke, from Old English lāwerce, lǣwerce, lāuricæ, from Proto-West Germanic *laiwarikā, from Proto-Germanic *laiwarikǭ, *laiwazikǭ (compare dialectal West Frisian larts, Dutch leeuwerik, German Lerche), from *laiwaz (borrowed into Finnish leivo, Estonian lõo), of unknown ultimate origin with no definitive cognates outside of Germanic.
Uncertain, either * from a northern English dialectal term lake /laik (“to play”) (around 1300, from Old Norse leika (“to play (as opposed to work)”)), with an intrusive -r- as is common in southern British dialects; or * a shortening of skylark (1809), sailors' slang, "play roughly in the rigging of a ship", because the common European larks were proverbial for high-flying; Dutch has a similar idea in speelvogel (“playbird, a person of markedly playful nature”).
Uncertain, either * from a northern English dialectal term lake /laik (“to play”) (around 1300, from Old Norse leika (“to play (as opposed to work)”)), with an intrusive -r- as is common in southern British dialects; or * a shortening of skylark (1809), sailors' slang, "play roughly in the rigging of a ship", because the common European larks were proverbial for high-flying; Dutch has a similar idea in speelvogel (“playbird, a person of markedly playful nature”).
See also for "lark"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: lark