carking
carking is the present participle and gerund of cark.
Meaning of cark
Verb
cark (third-person singular simple present carks, present participle carking, simple past and past participle carked)
- To be filled with worry, solicitude, or troubles.
- [W]ho vvould not rather Sleep Quietly upon a Hammock, vvithout either Cares in his Head, or Crudities in his Stomach, then lye Carking upon a Bed of State, vvith the Qualms and Tvvinges that accompany Surfeits and Exceſs?1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[Miscellany Fables.] Fab[le] CCCLXXXIII. A Spider and the Gout [Reflexion].”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC...
- To bring worry, vexation, or anxiety.
- Carnal pleasures are the sins of youth: ambition and the love of power, the sins of middle age: covetousness and carking cares, the crimes of old age.1831, Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, Comment on 2 Timothy 2: 22
- To labor anxiously.
- Why for sluggards cark and moil?1849, Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke's Song
Adjective
carking (comparative more carking, superlative most carking)
- Wearying, distressing (of care, or similar words).
- After mutual protestations of friendship and regard, he […] took his leave in a strange perplexity of mind, occasioned by the images of love, intruding upon the remonstrances of carking care.1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC
- For nowadays, the whale-fishery furnishes an asylum for many romantic, melancholy, and absent-minded young men, disgusted with the carking cares of earth, and seeking sentiment in tar and blubber.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 35, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 175
Noun
carking (plural carkings)
- Wearying; distress.
- What anxious cares and carkings have gnaw'd thy Breast, when Ravens and dumb Creatures have committed themselves to God's Wisdom and Goodness?1705, Anthony Horneck, The Crucified Jesus, page 419
Forms of carking
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more carking |
| superlative | most carking |
| Noun | |
| plural | carkings |
Words formed from carking
Phrases with carking
Questions about carking
- What does carking mean?
- Carking means wearying, distressing (of care, or similar words).
- What is carking the present participle and gerund of?
- Carking is the present participle and gerund of cark.
- What part of speech is carking?
- Carking can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near carking in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: carking (page history and authors); cark (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.
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Cite this entry: “carking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.