verb (used without object)
- to listen attentively; hearken.
verb (used with object)
- Archaic. to listen to; hear.
noun
- a hunter’s shout to hounds, as to encourage them in following the scent.
Verb Phrases
- hark back,
- (of hounds) to return along the course in order to regain a lost scent.
- to return to a previous subject or point; revert: He kept harking back to his early days in vaudeville.
verb
- (intr; usually imperative) to listen; pay attention
late 12c., from Old English *heorcian, perhaps an intensive form from base of hieran (see hear). Cf. talk/tale. Cognate with Old Frisian harkia “listen,” Middle Dutch horken, Old High German horechon, German horchen. To hark back (1829) originally referred to hounds returning along a track when the scent has been lost, till they find it again. Related: Harked; harking.