skylarking
UK/ˈskʌɪlɑːkɪŋ/
skylarking is the present participle and gerund of skylark.
Meaning of skylark
Verb
skylark (third-person singular simple present skylarks, present participle skylarking, simple past and past participle skylarked)
- To jump about joyfully, frolic; to play around, play tricks.
- I cherished no malice towards him, though he had been skylarking with me not a little in the matter of my bedfellow.1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 5
Noun
skylarking (countable and uncountable, plural skylarkings)
- Playing around; frolicking; originally, running about the rigging of a vessel for fun; horseplay.
- […] those gods and men whose titles to eminence are secure, seldom worry themselves about the seditious gossip of old apple-women, and the skylarkings of funny little boys in the street.1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or, The Ambiguities
Forms of skylarking
| plural | skylarkings |
|---|
Origin of skylarking
From skylark + -ing.
Questions about skylarking
- What does skylarking mean?
- Skylarking means playing around; frolicking; originally, running about the rigging of a vessel for fun; horseplay.
- What is skylarking the present participle and gerund of?
- Skylarking is the present participle and gerund of skylark.
- What part of speech is skylarking?
- Skylarking is a noun.
- How do you pronounce skylarking?
- Skylarking is pronounced /ˈskʌɪlɑːkɪŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of skylarking?
- The plural of skylarking is skylarkings.
Words near skylarking in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: skylarking (page history and authors); skylark (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: “skylarking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/skylarking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.