Word.ws English Dictionary

hawk

UK/ˈhɔːk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈhoːk/

hawk noun: a diurnal predatory bird of the family Accipitridae, smaller than an eagle.

hawk: a diurnal predatory bird of the family Accipitridae, smaller than an eagle
Image: Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

hawk (plural hawks)

  1. A diurnal predatory bird of the family Accipitridae, smaller than an eagle.
    • It is illegal to hunt hawks or other raptors in many parts of the world.
    • He made his hawke to fly,
      With hogeous showte and cry.c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 63, lines 47–48
  2. Any diurnal predatory terrestrial bird of similar size and appearance to the accipitrid hawks, such as a falcon.
  3. Any of various species of dragonfly of the genera Apocordulia and Austrocordulia, endemic to Australia.
  4. An advocate of aggressive political positions and actions.
    • A hawk by nature, Ellenborough strongly favoured presenting St Petersburg with an ultimatum warning that any further incursions into Persia would be regarded as a hostile act.1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 106
    • “Everybody knows who were the hawks and who were the doves,” Bundy told the ExComm on the morning of October 28, after Khrushchev announced that he was withdrawing his missiles. “Today was the day of the doves.”2012 October 11 [1962], Michael Dobbs, quoting McGeorge Bundy, “The original hawks and doves”, in Foreign Policy
    Synonyms:
    warmonger, war hawk
    Antonyms:
    dove
  5. An uncooperative or purely selfish participant in an exchange or game, especially when untrusting, acquisitive or treacherous. Refers specifically to the prisoner's dilemma, a.k.a. the Hawk-Dove game.
    Antonyms:
    dove
  6. (US, often, with-definite-article, especially Chicago, and nationwide in African-American) Cold, sharp or biting wind.
    • […] take-out sandwich from Arnie's on Jackson, then a brisk walk to Michigan Avenue in the face of the "Hawk," blowing newspapers and skirts and the gulls wheeling over the Michigan Avenue Bridge in front of […]2000 September 26, William Anderson, A Season of Flames, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 27
    • […] a hand-fired coal furnace that required little attention and kept the cottage coy in spite of "the hawk" blowing icy blasts outside. So in spite of Thumper's continuing discomfort we enjoyed a fairly merry Christmas. But then the base daily bulletin was published with the roster of OGs...2002 June 25, Charles W. Dryden, A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman, University of Alabama Press, →ISBN, page 215

Verb (1)

hawk (third-person singular simple present hawks, present participle hawking, simple past and past participle hawked)

  1. (transitive) To hunt with a hawk.
    • To hawke, or els to hunt
      From the auter to the funtc. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 62, lines 9–10
    • He rode astride while hawking; she falconed in the ladylike position of sidesaddle.2003, Brenda Joyce, House of Dreams, page 175
  2. (intransitive) To make an attack while on the wing; to soar and strike like a hawk.
    • to hawk at flies
    • A falcon, towering in her pride of place, / Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Noun (2)

hawk (plural hawks)

  1. A plasterer's tool, made of a flat surface with a handle below, used to hold an amount of plaster prior to application to the wall or ceiling being worked on: a mortarboard.
    Synonyms:
    mortarboard

Verb (2)

hawk (third-person singular simple present hawks, present participle hawking, simple past and past participle hawked)

  1. (transitive) To sell; to offer for sale by outcry in the street; to carry (merchandise) about from place to place for sale; to peddle.
    • The vendors were hawking their wares from little tables lining either side of the market square.
    • His works were hawked in every street.1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII
    Synonyms:
    tout

Noun (3)

hawk (plural hawks)

  1. A noisy effort to force up phlegm from the throat.
    • The man gave a rattling hawk in his throat and spat directly between Bond and Leiter.1954, Ian Fleming, “Death of a Pelican”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 139
    Synonyms:
    hawking

Verb (3)

hawk (third-person singular simple present hawks, present participle hawking, simple past and past participle hawked)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To expectorate, to cough up (something, such as mucus) from one's throat; to produce (something) by coughing or clearing one's throat.
    • to hawk a loogie
    • [I]s a trobled with the cough a the Lunges ſtill? does he hawke anights ſtill?c. 1603 (date written), Iohn Marston, The Malcontent, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for William Aspley, […], published 1604, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii
  2. (intransitive, transitive) To try to cough up something from one's throat; to clear the throat loudly; to cough heavily, especially causing uvular frication.
    • Grandpa sat on the front porch, hawking and wheezing, as he packed his pipe with cheap tobacco.

Proper noun capitalized: Hawk

Hawk (plural Hawks)

  1. A surname; variant forms Hauke, Hawke.

hawk meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

hawk in Hindi

predatory bird of Accipitridae
श्येन śyen, बाज़ bāz

hawk in Tamil

predatory bird of Accipitridae
பருந்து paruntu

hawk in Marathi

hawk
ससाणा sasāṇā

hawk in Urdu

predatory bird of Accipitridae
باز bāz, شاہین śāhīn, عقاب 'uqāb, چیل cīl
More languagesFewer languages
hawk in Bengali
বাজ baj, চিল cil, বাজপাখি bajpakhi
hawk in Telugu
డేగ ḍēga, శ్యేనము śyēnamu
hawk in Malayalam
വഴിവാണിഭം നടത്തുക, തെരുവുകച്ചവടം നടത്തുക, സാധനങ്ങൾ കൊണ്ടുനടന്നു വിൽക്കുക, വീടുതോറും കയറിയിറങ്ങി വിൽക്കുക
hawk in Kannada
ಗಿಡುಗ giḍuga
hawk in Punjabi
ਬਾਜ਼ bāz
hawk in Gujarati
હૉક
hawk in Sanskrit
श्येन śyena
hawk in Assamese
শেন xen, চিলনী siloni
hawk in Pashto
باز
hawk in Tagalog
lawin
hawk in Arabic
صَقْر ṣaqr, بَاز bāz
hawk in Malay
rajawali, jaja
hawk in Indonesian
rajawali, deham
hawk in Persian
باز bâz, شاهین šâhin, قوش quš
hawk in Thai
เหยี่ยว yìao, ผู้กระหายสงคราม pûu-grà-hǎai-sǒng-kraam
hawk in Vietnamese
chim ưng, diều hâu
Sindhi
باز bāz
Kashmiri
پٲز pạ̄z

Examples of hawk in a sentence

  • President Donald Trump has spent years playing the role of a China hawk.2019, “The World in 2020”, in The Economist:
  • […] a hand-fired coal furnace that required little attention and kept the cottage coy in spite of "the hawk" blowing icy blasts outside.2002 June 25, Charles W. Dryden, A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman, University of Alabama Press, →ISBN, page 215:
  • I wanna learn by Ruby's birthday party." Pride turned up his collar against the hawk blowing from the river."2007 December 1, Gay G. Gunn, Pride and Joi, Kensington Books, →ISBN, page 47:
  • But whether upward to the moon they go, Or dream the winter out in caves below, Or hawk at flies elsewhere1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […]...

All 40 example sentences with hawk

Synonyms of hawk

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of hawk

Forms of hawk

Noun
pluralhawks
Verb
third-person singular presenthawks
present participlehawking
past participlehawked
pasthawked
Proper noun
pluralHawks

Plural of hawk: hawks

Origin of hawk

Inherited from Middle English hauk, hauke, hawke, havek, from Old English hafoc, from Proto-West Germanic *habuk, from Proto-Germanic *habukaz, controversially derived from Proto-Indo-European *kopuǵos, perhaps ultimately derived from *kap- (“seize”). Cognate with West Frisian hauk, German Low German Haavke, Dutch havik, German Habicht, Swedish hök, Danish høg, Norwegian Bokmål hauk, Norwegian Nynorsk hauk, Faroese heykur, Icelandic haukur, Finnish haukka, Estonian haugas; also Latin capys, capus (“bird of prey”), Albanian gabonjë, shkabë (“eagle”), Russian ко́бец (kóbec, “falcon”), Polish kobuz (“Eurasian Hobby”)).

Uncertain; perhaps from Middle English hache (“battle-axe”), or from a variant use of the above, for this compare with Russian со́кол (sókol, “falcon, but also a hawk (plaster's tool), mortarboard”).

Back-formation from hawker.

Words formed from hawk

Phrases with hawk

74 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with hawk

11 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hawk

What does hawk mean?
Hawk means a diurnal predatory bird of the family Accipitridae, smaller than an eagle.
What is hawk in Hindi?
Hawk in Hindi is श्येन (śyen), बाज़ (bāz). See Hawk meaning in Hindi.
How do you use hawk in a sentence?
President Donald Trump has spent years playing the role of a China hawk.
What part of speech is hawk?
Hawk can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hawk?
Hawk is pronounced /ˈhɔːk/ (UK).
What is the plural of hawk?
The plural of hawk is hawks.

Words near hawk in the dictionary

  1. hawings
  2. Hawiya
  3. Hawiyas
  4. Hawiye
  5. Hawiyes
  6. hawk
  7. hawk boy
  8. hawk boys
  9. hawk moth
  10. hawk moths
  11. hawk nose

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hawk (page history and authors); Hawk (page history and authors); ससाणा (Marathi) (page history and authors); চিল (Bengali) (page history and authors); hawk (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ಗಿಡುಗ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਬਾਜ਼ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); hawk (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); باز (Pashto) (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: en-us-hawk.ogg.

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