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bark

bark

5 9.9
A sailing ship with three masts
  • noun
  • /bɑrk/
  • Archaic
translation icon : barco de tres palos
  • She's a small bark, and her company is over eighty in number.
  • three-masted bark
  • sail-powered bark
  • masted bark

Examples

  • The bark, self-buoyant, waits to ride the gale.

    Academic text (2017)
  • While the majority of the ships were steamers, Heikki's was a three-masted wooden bark, which was to sail from Kotka with a cargo of lumber, bound for Liverpool.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • That was made by the skipper of a Norwegian bark.

  • Seven years ago, me and Mr. Hayes were working our passage on a Norwegian bark.

  • The crew sailed the old bark across the treacherous waters of the Atlantic.

  • During the race, the sleek bark outpaced all the other vessels in the fleet.

  • A magnificent bark with billowing sails captured the attention of everyone at the harbor.

Synonyms

sailing ship
vsbark
7 2.9

A large ship moved by sails, usually with more than one mast

is a specific three or more mast design with set mast rigging
barque
vsbark
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A sailing ship with three or more masts, the rear mast having sails along the ship and the others across

has identical design but is an older spelling variant

Idioms

15 6.5

To be wrong about who or what caused something

1 6.1

Talks in a threatening way but does not act

to bark yourself
  • Informal
1 9.9

To do something yourself instead of asking someone else to do it

9.9

To do a task yourself and take responsibility for what happens

To do work yourself when you hired someone else to do it

Compounds

1 6.5

A small beetle that bores tunnels in tree bark and often kills the tree

1 7.2

A light boat made from birch tree bark and used by Native people in North America

Dried tree bark with a warm, sweet smell used as a cooking spice

A very high, sharp sound a dog makes

bitter-bark
  • Specialized
9.9

A small shrub with large pink sepals that people use as medicine for fever

9.9

A tropical tree with smelly, poisonous bark and strong wood whose bark and seeds people use as medicine

9.9

A tropical American tree with rough, smelly poisonous outer layer and very hard wood used in traditional medicine

canella bark
  • Specialized
9.9

A spicy, fragrant inner bark from a small tropical tree used as a spice and medicine

Cartagena bark
  • Archaic
9.9

Bark from a Colombian tree people used long ago to make medicine for malaria

A fragrant bark from a small shrub for making incense and health drinks

Bark from a tree used as a spice that smells like cinnamon and tastes stronger

A Chinese tree with strong-smelling bark used to make a type of cinnamon

chestnut-bark disease
  • Specialized
7.4

A disease that kills American chestnut trees by making deep wounds in their bark

chittam bark
  • Archaic
9.9

Dried bark from a tree used as a natural laxative

chittem bark
  • Archaic
9.9

Dried bark used as a medicine to help people have a bowel movement

cinchona bark
  • Specialized
8.5

Dried bark from a tree used to make medicine for malaria

dita bark
  • Philippine
9.9

An evergreen tree from eastern Asia and the Philippines with large leathery leaves and small green white flower clusters

eleuthera bark
  • Specialized
9.9

A fragrant bark from a small shrub used to make incense and health drinks

angostura bark
  • Specialized
9.9

Bitter bark from a South American tree that flavors drinks and medicines

Small insect that lives on tree bark and eats fungi and dead plant parts

A small insect that lives on tree bark and eats mold or tiny plant bits

9.9

A shrub or small tree that grows in southern US swamps whose bark is used to treat fever

Jesuit's bark
  • Archaic
9.9

Bark from a tree used to make medicine for malaria

Peruvian bark
  • Archaic
9.9

Dried bark from a South American tree that contains quinine used to treat malaria

Fragrant bark from a tropical tree used for incense and traditional medicine

tapa bark
  • Specialized
9.9

Thin stringy bark from the paper mulberry tree used to make tapa cloth

tappa bark
  • Australian
9.9

Thin bark from the paper mulberry tree that people beat to make cloth in Polynesia

smooth bark kauri
  • Australian
9.9

A large Australian tree with a smooth pale trunk and light soft wood used for building

spruce bark beetle
  • Specialized
8.0

A small insect that makes holes in the bark of spruce trees and often kills them

winter's bark
  • Specialized
9.9

A South American evergreen tree with aromatic bark used as a spice and medicine

winter's bark family
  • Specialized
9.9

A small group of mainly tropical shrubs and trees with scented bark

winter's bark tree
  • Specialized
9.9

A South American evergreen tree with fragrant leaves, bark used as medicine, and soft light wood

winter's bark
  • Literature
9.9

A South American tree bark used as a spice and traditional medicine

Surface Forms

bark singular
barks plural

Etymology

Bark (ship) comes from a European word for a small boat, like the French barque, so a bark is a kind of sailing ship.