hawk
pronunciation
How to pronounce hawk in British English:
UK [hɔːk]
How to pronounce hawk in American English:
US [hɔːk]
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- Noun:
- diurnal bird of prey typically having short rounded wings and a long tail
- an advocate of an aggressive policy on foreign relations
- a square board with a handle underneath; used by masons to hold or carry mortar
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- Verb:
- sell or offer for sale from place to place
- hunt with hawks
- clear mucus or food from one's throat
Word Origin
- hawk
- hawk: English has three current words hawk. The oldest, denoting the bird of prey [OE], comes from a prehistoric West and North Germanic *khabukaz, which also produced German habicht, Dutch havik, Swedish hök, and Danish hög. Hawk ‘peddle’ [16] is a back-formation from hawker. This was probably borrowed from Low German höker, a derivative ultimately of Middle Low German hōken ‘peddle’, which may well have been formed from the same base as produced English huckster. Hawk ‘clear the throat’ [16] probably originated as an imitation of the noise it denotes.=> huckster
- hawk (n.)
- c. 1300, hauk, earlier havek (c. 1200), from Old English hafoc (West Saxon), heafuc (Mercian), heafoc, "hawk," from Proto-Germanic *habukaz (cognates: Old Norse haukr, Old Saxon habuc, Middle Dutch havik, Old High German habuh, German Habicht "hawk"), from a root meaning "to seize," from PIE *kap- "to grasp" (cognates: Russian kobec "a kind of falcon;" see capable). Transferred sense of "militarist" attested from 1956, probably based on its opposite, dove.
- hawk (v.1)
- "to sell in the open, peddle," late 15c., back-formation from hawker "itinerant vendor" (c. 1400), agent noun from Middle Low German höken "to peddle, carry on the back, squat," from Proto-Germanic *huk-. Related: Hawked; hawking. Despite the etymological connection with stooping under a burden on one's back, a hawker is technically distinguished from a peddler by use of a horse and cart or a van.
- hawk (v.2)
- "to hunt with a hawk," mid-14c., from hawk (n.).
- hawk (v.3)
- "to clear one's throat," 1580s, imitative.
Example
- 1. The new prime minister is also a foreign-policy hawk .
- 2. Global hawk is a special case in many ways .
- 3. This is encouraging firms to hawk efficiency-boosting tools .
- 4. Don 't hawk the next mansierre .
- 5. Moreover , their every move is supervised by civil servants , and watched like a hawk by the media .