Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make ready; prepare.
  • To dispose.
  • To set open; open.
  • noun A variant of yerk.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb Prov. Eng. To yerk.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To draw (stitches etc.) tight.
  • verb To hit, strike, especially with a cane or whip.
  • verb To crack (a whip).
  • verb transitive To make ready; prepare.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To dispose; be set in order for; be destined or intended for.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To set open; open.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin uncertain, probably originally imitative; compare jerk etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ȝarken, ȝerken, from Old English ġearcian ("to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply"), from Proto-Germanic *garwakōnan (“to prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ-, *gʰerbʰ- (“to grab, take, rake”), equivalent to yare +‎ -k. Related to Old English ġearc ("ready, active, quick"), Old English ġearu ("prepared, ready, equipped, complete, finished, yare"). More at yare.

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Examples

  • Sometimes I looked at all the smug, settled couples around me . . . and I wanted to yark a little bit.

    The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf Molly Harper 2011

  • Sometimes I looked at all the smug, settled couples around me . . . and I wanted to yark a little bit.

    The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf Molly Harper 2011

  • My guy doesn't quibble about cleaning up cat yark.

    Or As I Like to Call it, "The School of Hard Knocks" Jen 2009

  • I'm trying not to kill spiders and to throw them out, but they come back and so on, and sometimes my boyfriend get a shoe and... yark !

    More from Lake Chini Glenda Larke 2008

  • He gae his arm an awfu 'sweel roond, an' instead o 'sendin' the ba 'to the wickets, it gaed spung ower an' hut Sandy a yark i 'the side o' the heid.

    My Man Sandy J. B. Salmond

  • I'm thinkin 'she unnerstude the insinivation, for she uttert deil anither word, but yokit tee again fell spitefu' tae rug an 'yark at the sulkin' fush.

    Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places Archibald Forbes 1869

  • 'Gie him a shairp upward yark, my leddy,' says I; 'there canna be muckle strength o' resistance left in him by this time! '

    Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places Archibald Forbes 1869

  • I've gotta admit, though ... the thought of running a prostitution business in the same place they are raising their children sort of makes me want to yark.

    unknown title 2009

  • I've gotta admit, though ... the thought of running a prostitution business in the same place they are raising their children sort of makes me want to yark.

    unknown title 2009

  • “Pardon me, I think I’m going to yark,” Samson grunted through the open passenger door.

    How to Flirt with A Naked Werewolf Molly Harper 2011

Comments

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  • Slang term for vomit

    January 24, 2008

  • The ballet of the whipper of late dayes here in England, was but a scoffe in comparison of him. All the colliers of Romford, who hold their corporation by yarking the blind beare at Paris garden, were but bunglers to him, he had the right agility of the lash, there were none of them could made the cord come aloft with a twange halfe like him.

    - Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller, 1594

    April 14, 2010