Word.ws English Dictionary

throw in the bark

throw in the bark verb: to administer quinine.

Verb

throw in the bark (third-person singular simple present throws in the bark, present participle throwing in the bark, simple past threw in the bark, past participle thrown in the bark)

  1. (obsolete) To administer quinine.
    • The physician dined that day at Mr Allworthy's; and having after dinner visited his patient, he returned to the company, and told them, that he had now the satisfaction to say, with assurance, that his patient was out of all danger: that he had brought his fever to a perfect intermission, and...1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IX, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V
    • In intermitting fevers of an obſtinate nature, I have found it necessary to throw in the bark much faſter.1790, William Buchan, Domestic medicine: or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, 11th edition, page 151

Forms of throw in the bark

third-person singular presentthrows in the bark
present participlethrowing in the bark
pastthrew in the bark
past participlethrown in the bark

Origin of throw in the bark

From the fact that the bark of the cinchona tree is used to make the medicine quinine.

Questions about throw in the bark

What does throw in the bark mean?
Throw in the bark means to administer quinine.
What part of speech is throw in the bark?
Throw in the bark is a verb.
What is the past tense of throw in the bark?
The past tense of throw in the bark is threw in the bark.

Words near throw in the bark in the dictionary

  1. throw hands
  2. throw in
  3. throw in at the deep end
  4. throw in one's hand
  5. throw in one's lot with
  6. throw in the bark
  7. throw in the cards
  8. throw in the sponge
  9. throw in the towel
  10. throw in with
  11. throw ins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throw in the bark (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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