before 900; Middle English; Old English serc; cognate with Old Norse serkr ( cf. berserk)
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They leave not spindle, spoon, nor speit, Bed, blanket, bolster, sark, nor sheet, John o’ the Park Rypes kist and ark; For all sic wark He is richt meet.
From Border Raids and Reivers by Borland, Robert
He keepit naething on but his inside sark, an' his drawers, an' a pair o' slippers, an' aff he set to rin ootby to the targets an' back.
From My Man Sandy by Salmond, J. B.
“Out went Sigurd From that interview Into the hall of kings, Writhing with anguish; So that began to start The ardent warrior’s Iron-woven sark Off from his sides.”
From Myths of the Norsemen From the Eddas and Sagas by Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
I hadna a plack in my pouch That night I was a bride; My gown was linsey-woolsey, And ne'er a sark ava; And ye hae ribbons and buskins, Mae than ane or twa.'
From English Songs and Ballads by Crosland, T. W. H. (Thomas William Hodgson)
At the hinder end he got a clearness in his mind, sat up in his sark on the bed-side, an’ fell thinkin’ ance mair o’ the black man an’ Janet.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
