Word.ws English Dictionary

holk

holk noun: a hollow cavity.

Noun

holk (plural holks)

  1. (UK, dialectal) A hollow cavity.

Verb

holk (third-person singular simple present holks, present participle holking, simple past and past participle holked)

  1. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To dig out; make hollow; hollow out.
  2. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To dig; dig into; pierce; penetrate; investigate; poke.
  3. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To dig up; excavate.
    • The Sessioune perceiving gryt perell through the burieing of people in the kirkyaird of thair perroche kirk and within the kirk itself by raising of grene graivis and holking under the kirk vall undermynding of the samyne ordanis fra this furth that na persone presume to mak graivis within the...1908, Aberdeen University Studies, volume 35, University of Aberdeen, page 96

Forms of holk

Noun
pluralholks
alternative Northern England Scotlandhowk
alternative Northern England Scotlandhouk
Verb
third-person singular presentholks
present participleholking
past participleholked
pastholked

Origin of holk

From Middle English holk, from Old English holc, holoc (“hole, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *holuk, from Proto-Germanic *hulukaz (“a hollow”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide”). Equivalent to hole + -ock (diminutive ending). Cognate with Low German holke, hölke (“small hole”), German Holk (“a type of flat-bottomed barge”), Swedish holk (“nest, birdhouse”), dialectal Norwegian holk, hylke (“wooden barrel, cask”), Icelandic hólkur (“hollow cylinder or tube”). Related to hulk.

From Middle English holken, from Old English *holcian (attested in āholcian, āhlocian (“to dig out”), from Proto-West Germanic *holukōn, derived from the noun above. Cognate with Middle Low German holken, hȫlken (“to hollow out”), German Low German uthöhlken (“to hollow out”).

Questions about holk

What does holk mean?
Holk means a hollow cavity.
What part of speech is holk?
Holk can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of holk?
The plural of holk is holks.

Words near holk in the dictionary

  1. holistically
  2. holisticness
  3. holistics
  4. holists
  5. holiweek
  6. holk
  7. holked
  8. Holker
  9. Holkerian
  10. Holkham
  11. Holkhams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holk (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: “holk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.