Word.ws English Dictionary

barke

US/ˈbɑɹkə/

barke is the obsolete spelling of bark.

Meaning of bark

Verb (1)

bark (third-person singular simple present barks, present participle barking, simple past and past participle barked)

  1. (intransitive) To make a short, loud, explosive noise with the vocal organs (said of animals, especially dogs).
    • The neighbour's dog is always barking.
    Synonyms:
    give tongue, latrate
  2. (intransitive) To make a clamor; to make importunate outcries.
    • And therefore they bark, and say the scripture maketh heretics.1530, Tyndale, A Pathway into the Holy Scripture
  3. (transitive) To speak sharply.
    • The sergeant barked an order.

Verb (2)

bark (third-person singular simple present barks, present participle barking, simple past and past participle barked)

  1. To strip the bark from; to peel.
    • Along the river freshly felled and barked trees told of the activity of beaver, and in slow current and in eddies the tops of their winter's food supply lay like submerged brush fences projecting above the surface.1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate
  2. To abrade or rub off any outer covering from.
    • I barked my shins climbing the fence.
  3. To girdle.

See all 23 meanings of bark

Proper noun capitalized: Barke

Barke

  1. (alternative, historical) Alternative form of Barca, former name of Marj: a city in Libya.

Origin of barke

From Ancient Greek Βάρκη (Bárkē), from the local tribe of the Barraci.

Questions about barke

What is barke the obsolete spelling of?
Barke is the obsolete spelling of bark.
What part of speech is barke?
Barke is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce barke?
Barke is pronounced /ˈbɑɹkə/ (US).

Words near barke in the dictionary

  1. barkcloths
  2. Barkdoll
  3. Barkdolls
  4. Barkdull
  5. Barkdulls
  6. barke
  7. barked
  8. barked at print
  9. barked at the wrong tree
  10. barked up the wrong tree
  11. barkeep

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barke (page history and authors); Barke (page history and authors); bark (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “barke.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barke. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.