barking

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

Adjective

barking mad (not comparable)

1. (New Zealand, UK, informal) Completely insane.

   Synonyms:

   three stops short of Dagenham, 5150, bananas, barking, buggish, buggy, bughouse, barmy, batchy, batpoop