chark
/t͡ʃɑː(ɹ)k/
chark noun: charcoal; coke.
Noun
chark (countable and uncountable, plural charks)
- Charcoal; coke.
- ... so I contrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen done in England, under turf, till it became chark or dry coal ...1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- A pointed stick, which when placed with the point against another piece of wood, and spun rapidly in alternate directions with the aid of attached cords, produces enough heat by friction to create a fire; a fire drill.
- The discoverer of the chark, or " fire-drill," an instrument for obtaining fire by artificial means, would be so great a benefactor to a people that had to suffer all the inconveniences resulting from occasional fireless hearths, that we may well understand why he may be invested by his astonished...1872, Charles Hardwick, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore
- A wine glass.
- At noon, each man got his half-chark (a wine glass) full of rum and a four-quart iron pot of fish soup made from salt salmon, potatoes and graham flour ... in the evening another half chark of rum and 20 cents as pay for the day's work.2006, Phyllis Downing Carlson, Laurel Downing Bill, Aunt Phil's Trunk: Early Alaska
- A Middle Eastern falcon, probably the lanner.
- A good chark will sometimes take as many as eight or ten bustards or five or six gazelles in the course of a morning.1856, Austen Henry Layard, Discoveries among the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, 2nd edition
Verb (1)
chark (third-person singular simple present charks, present participle charking, simple past and past participle charked)
- To reduce by strong heat, as to produce charcoal or coke; to calcine.
- I have ſeen Turf chark'd, and then it ſerves to work Iron, and, as I have been inform'd will ſerve to make it in a Bloomery or Iron-work. Turf chark'd I reckon the ſweeteſt and wholeſomeſt Fire that can be, fitter for a Chamber and conſumptive People, than either Wood, Stone-Coal or Charcoal.1749, John Lowthorp, Royal Society of Great Britain, The Philosophical Transactions and Collections to the end of the year MDCC, 5th Edition
- The method which the Romans now taught them of charking the coal continues eſſentially the ſame until the preſent moment.1771, John Whitaker, The History of Manchester, volume 1
Verb (2)
chark (third-person singular simple present charks, present participle charking, simple past and past participle charked)
- To make a grating sound.
- The hoarse charking conversation which they carried on was calculated to support the delusion.1820, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 7
Forms of chark
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | charks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | charks |
| present participle | charking |
| past participle | charked |
| past | charked |
Origin of chark
A back-formation from charcoal (interpreted as chark coal).
Cognate with Scots chork, from Middle English charken, cherkin, from Old English ċearcian, variant of cracian (“to resound, make an abrasive sound, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“to crack, crackle; to shriek”). Doublet of chirk, crack, and crake.
Words that rhyme with chark
28 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about chark
- What does chark mean?
- Chark means charcoal; coke.
- What part of speech is chark?
- Chark can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce chark?
- Chark is pronounced /t͡ʃɑː(ɹ)k/.
- What is the plural of chark?
- The plural of chark is charks.
Words near chark in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chark (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chark.wav.
Cite this entry: “chark.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chark. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.