Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb Archaic To listen attentively; give heed.
from The Century Dictionary.
- See harken, harkener.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb Archaic To hear by listening.
- transitive verb Archaic To give heed to; to hear attentively.
- transitive verb [Obs.] to search out.
- intransitive verb To listen; to lend the ear; to attend to what is uttered; to give heed; to hear, in order to obey or comply.
- intransitive verb obsolete To inquire; to seek information.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive To
listen ; to lend the ear; toattend orgive heed to what isuttered ; to hear withattention ,obedience , orcompliance . - verb transitive, poetic To
hear by listening. - verb transitive To hear with attention; to
regard .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb listen; used mostly in the imperative
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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To hear is to hearken, and to hearken is to obey, from a right faith in God.
Life and Labors of Elder John Kline the Martyr Missionary Kline, John 1900
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To hear is to hearken, and to hearken is to obey, from a right faith in God.
Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk John Kline 1830
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Those stripes kind of hearken back to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor.
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Those stripes kind of hearken back to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor.
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I want to just kind of hearken back to what he said about San Diego.
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For, sir, yonder clamour, being inarticulate, may speak infinitely to such as hearken understandingly, being one of Nature's awful voices, a very symphony of Life.
Peregrine's Progress Jeffery Farnol 1915
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I kind of hearken back to the days where you had the officer on the beat.
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And hearken, that is their horn; blow we an answer: ho, noise! set thy lips to the brass. "
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And hearken, that is their horn; blow we an answer: ho, noise! set thy lips to the brass. "
Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair William Morris 1865
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Then Antinous, who was a great lord, and of chief note among the suitors, said, "Prince Telemachus does ill to encourage these wandering beggars, who go from place to place, affirming that they have been some considerable persons in their time, filling the ears of such as hearken to them with lies, and pressing with their bold feet into kings 'palaces.
The Adventures of Ulysses Charles Lamb 1804
bilby commented on the word hearken
Hearken to the reed forlorn
Crying ever since was torn
From its rushy bed; a strain
Of impassioned love and pain.
- Jalaluddin Rumi.
Sorry, translator unknown.
July 10, 2008