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English (UK)
Cambridge Dictionary Online

Meaning of bark in English

bark
noun
uk
/bɑːk/ us
/bɑːrk/

bark noun (TREE)

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[ U ]
the hard outer covering of a tree
 
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Types of wood
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bark noun (DOG)

[ C ]
the loud, rough noise that a dog and some other animals make
Examples
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Animal (non-human) sounds
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bark noun (FOOD)

[ C or U ]
a sweet food consisting of chocolate in a thin, flat bar shape with nuts, dried fruit, or other sweet food mixed in:
Peppermint bark should snap when you break or bite into it.
They sell fine handmade cookies, cakes, fudge, and chocolate barks.
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Sweets
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Idiom

someone's bark is worse than his/her bite
bark
verb
uk
/bɑːk/ us
/bɑːrk/
B2 [ I ]
(of a dog) to make a loud, rough noise:
They heard a dog barking outside.
C2 [ T ]
to shout at someone in a forceful manner:
bark an order The sergeant barked orders at the new recruits.
bark something out The foremen bark out instructions in broken Spanish.
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Animal (non-human) sounds
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Idiom

be barking up the wrong tree
(Definition of bark from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

bark | American Dictionary

bark
verb [ I/T ]
us
/bɑrk/

bark verb [I/T] (DOG)

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to make the loud, short noise that a dog and some other animals make:
[ I ] The dog barked all night.
A human who barks something shouts it suddenly and strongly:
[ T ] The sergeant barked orders at his troops.

Idioms

someone's bark is worse than his or her bite
barking up the wrong tree
bark
noun
us
/bɑrk/

bark noun (TREE)

[ U ]
the hard, outer covering of a tree

bark noun (DOG)

[ C ]
the loud, short noise that a dog and some other animals make:
The dog gave two loud barks.
(Definition of bark from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of bark

bark
Because live trees had significantly thicker barks in the burnt forest, we can surmise that thin-barked trees were most susceptible to the fires.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Now and then a dog barked.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
His barking tic reinforced his dog interests.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The focus of chemical-pharmaceutical practice was the extraction of aqueous and oily distillates from vegetable materials such as spices, herbs, blossoms, fruits, seeds, woods, husks, and barks.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Is that not the rather revealing dog that has not barked in the night?
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
What the miners are fed up to the back teeth with is dogs barking before they are hurt.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
I really think he is barking up the wrong tree there, and it is a pure mare's nest.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
I think we are barking up the wrong tree.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
The dog that has not barked in the night is interesting.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
They have always barked in a very familiar chorus.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
No doubt, as the queues get longer, the barks will get louder.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
The dogs were underground and had their muzzles bound with tape, in order to stop them from barking and annoying the neighbours.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
He seemed to think he had stumbled on something, but, not for the first time, he is barking up the wrong tree.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
They are continually causing problems to my constituents by barking at night.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Suppose that an old lady living alone has a dog which barks when somebody knocks at the door.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
See all examples of bark
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with bark

bark

These are words often used in combination with bark.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

birch bark
Alternatively, though less common, turf would be placed above the birch bark.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
brown bark
Brown bark of mature trees peels off in strips to reveal reddish-brown inner bark.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
cedar bark
Some buildings have applied cedar bark sheathing, still remarkably intact.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
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What is the pronunciation of bark?
 

Translations of bark

in Chinese (Traditional)
樹, 樹皮, 狗…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
树, 树皮, 狗…
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in Spanish
corteza, ladrido, ladrar…
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in Portuguese
casca de árvore, latido, ladrar…
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in more languages
in Marathi
in Japanese
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in Catalan
in Dutch
in Tamil
in Hindi
in Gujarati
in Danish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Urdu
in Ukrainian
in Telugu
in Bengali
in Czech
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Korean
in Italian
भुंकणे…
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木の皮, 樹皮, （犬の）ほえ声…
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ağaç kabuğu, havlama, havlamak…
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écorce [feminine], aboiement [masculine], aboyer…
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escorça, lladruc, lladrar…
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geblaf, blaffen, schors…
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(ஒரு நாயின்) உரத்த, கடினமான சத்தத்தை எழுப்புதல்…
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(कुत्ते के) भौंकने की आवाज़…
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ભસવું…
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gøen, bjæffen, gø…
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skall, skällande, skälla…
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salak, menyalak, memekik…
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das Bellen, bellen, schnauzen…
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bark [masculine], bjeff [neuter], hundeglam [neuter]…
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بھونکنا…
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гавкання, гавкати, гаркнути…
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మొరుగు…
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কুকুরের ডাক…
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štěkání, štěkat, vyštěknout…
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salakan, gong-gongan, menyalak…
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เสียงเห่าของสุนัข, เห่า, ตะคอก…
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tiếng sủa, sủa, quát tháo…
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kora, szczekanie, szczekać…
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나무껍질, 개가 짖는 소리, 개가 짖다…
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corteccia, latrato, abbaiare…
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