Skylark

//ˈskaɪlɑɹk// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small brown passerine bird, Alauda arvensis, that sings as it flies high into the air.
  2. 2
    brown-speckled European lark noted for singing while hovering at a great height wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To jump about joyfully, frolic; to play around, play tricks. dated

    "I cherished no malice towards him, though he had been skylarking with me not a little in the matter of my bedfellow."

  2. 2
    play boisterously wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
alauda arvensiscarousecavortcelebratecut loosedebauch

Example

More examples

"One day you wake up like a skylark, a winged express at its fastest, devising pursuits to embark on, but this disappears by breakfast."

Etymology

From sky + lark. Verb sense 1809, originally nautical, possibly influenced by northern English dialectal term lake/laik (“to play”) (from Old Norse leika (“to play (as opposed to work)”)); see lark for details.

Related phrases

Eurasian skylarkJapanese skylarkoriental skylarkalauda arvensissky first

More for "skylark"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.