querk

UK/kwɜːk/

querk verb: to throttle; choke; stifle; suffocate.

Verb

querk (third-person singular simple present querks, present participle querking, simple past and past participle querked)

(transitive) To throttle; choke; stifle; suffocate.
(intransitive) To grunt, croak, squeal; to moan, complain; to sigh, huff; to emit a breath forcibly, as after great exertion.
(dialectal, intransitive) To die.

Forms of querk

third-person singular present	querks
present participle	querking
past participle	querked
past	querked
alternative form	quirk

Origin of querk

From Middle English querken (also as querkenen), from Old Norse kvirkja (“to strangle”), from Proto-Germanic *kwirkijaną, from Proto-Germanic *kwerkō (“gullet, throat”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷergʷ-, *gʷerkʷ-, *gʷerw- (“throat, neck”). Cognate with Old Frisian querka ("to strangle"; > North Frisian querke, quirke (“to querk”)), Danish kværke (“to throttle, strangle, suffocate”), Icelandic kyrkja, kvirkja (“to throttle, strangle”), Middle Low German querken (“to strangle”), Middle Low German querke, quarke (“throat, gullet”), Old High German querka, querkela (“throat, gullet”), Latin gurguliō (“throat”). More at gurgle.

Words that rhyme with querk

35 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about querk

What does querk mean?: Querk means to throttle; choke; stifle; suffocate.
What part of speech is querk?: Querk is a verb.
How do you pronounce querk?: Querk is pronounced /kwɜːk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of querk?: The past tense of querk is querked.

Words near querk in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: querk (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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