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howk

British

/ haʊk /

verb

to dig (out or up)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of howk

C17: from earlier holk

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"But we'll help him to his ain, kimmers," cried others; "and before Gossin shall keep the Place of Ellangowan, we'll howk him out o't wi' our nails!"

From The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III by Lodge, Henry Cabot

With this he set to work to howk the turf away, and found it light to work, for it had been loosely shovelled in, and came away with ease.

From Border Ghost Stories by Pease, Howard

Let us howk it up again, and send it forth with a new lease of life.

From The Portsmouth Road and Its Tributaries To-Day and in Days of Old by Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)

For similar parallel forms cp. gowk and goilk; nowt and nolt; howk and holk; lowp and loip; bowdyn and boildin, etc.

From Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch by Flom, George Tobias

Did his enemies wish to see him howk out her grave with his own hands?

From The Scapegoat; a romance and a parable by Caine, Hall, Sir

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023