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.
‘Ye wash, ye wash, ye bonny may, And ay’s ye wash your sark o’ silk’: ‘It’s a’ for you, ye gentle knight, My skin is whiter than the milk.’
From Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Second Series by Sidgwick, Frank
IN samite sark yclad was she; And that fair glimmerish band of gold Which crowned long, savage locks of hair In the moon brent cold.
From Accolon of Gaul with Other Poems by Cawein, Madison Julius
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
The reader at Wythburn had for his salary three pounds yearly, a hempen sark or shirt, a whittlegate, and a goosegate, or right to depasture a flock of geese on Helvellyn.
From Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland by Scott, Daniel
At the hinder end, he got a clearness in his mind, sat up in his sark on the bed-side, and fell thinkin' ance mair o' the black man an' Janet.
From Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) Ghost Stories by French, Joseph Lewis
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.
