perking

Verb (1)

perk (third-person singular simple present perks, present participle perking, simple past and past participle perked)

1. (informal, transitive) To make (coffee) in a percolator or a drip coffeemaker.
   • I’ll perk some coffee.
2. (informal, intransitive) Of coffee: to be produced by heated water seeping (“percolating”) through coffee grounds.
   • The coffee is perking.

Verb (2)

perk (third-person singular simple present perks, present participle perking, simple past and past participle perked)

1. (transitive) To make trim or smart; to straighten up; to erect; to make a jaunty or saucy display of.
   • [the squirrel] whisks his brush
     And perks his ears, and stamps and scolds aloud1785, William Cowper, The Task, London: J. Johnson, Book 6, p. 247
2. (intransitive) To appear from below or behind something, emerge, pop up, poke out.
   • The heads of plants above the crack’d ground perk:1640, John Gower, transl., Ovid’s Festivalls, Cambridge, Book 4, April, p. 77
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To exalt oneself; to bear oneself loftily.
   • For whereof commeth thys hypocrisie in the popedome, that men shall preache free will, merits, and satisfactions, and set vp their bristles in suche wise, and beare themselues in hande that they may come perking before God, yea and preace thither lyke shamelesse strumpets.1574, Arthur Golding (translator), Sermons of Master John Calvin, upon the Booke of Job, London: Lucas Harison and George Byshop, Sermon 38, The first upon the tenth Chapter

Verb (3)

perk (third-person singular simple present perks, present participle perking, simple past and past participle perked)

1. (dated) To peer; to look narrowly, sharply, or inquisitively.
   • He is a tall, thin, bony man, with an interrogative nose, and little restless perking eyes, which appear to have been given him for the sole purpose of peeping into other people’s affairs with.1835, Charles Dickens, “The Election for Beadle”, in Sketches by Boz, 3rd edition, volume 1, London: John Macrone, published 1837, page 32

See all 12 meanings of perk