Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An area of land set aside for public use, as.
  • noun A piece of land with few or no buildings within or adjoining a town, maintained for recreational and ornamental purposes.
  • noun A landscaped city square.
  • noun A large tract of rural land kept in its natural state and usually reserved for the enjoyment and recreation of visitors.
  • noun A broad, fairly level valley between mountain ranges.
  • noun A tract of land attached to a country house, especially when including extensive gardens, woods, pastures, or a game preserve.
  • noun Sports A stadium or an enclosed playing field.
  • noun An area where military vehicles or artillery are stored and serviced.
  • noun The materiel kept in such an area.
  • noun An area in or near a town designed and usually zoned for a certain purpose.
  • noun A position in an automatic transmission that disengages the gears and sets the brake so the vehicle cannot move.
  • intransitive verb To put or leave (a vehicle) for a time in a certain location.
  • intransitive verb Aerospace To place (a spacecraft or satellite) in a usually temporary orbit.
  • intransitive verb Informal To place or leave temporarily.
  • intransitive verb To assemble (artillery or other equipment) in a military park.
  • intransitive verb To park a motor vehicle.
  • intransitive verb Slang To engage in kissing and caressing in a vehicle stopped in a secluded spot.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To inclose or shut up in as in a park.
  • To bring together in a park or compact body: as, to park artillery.
  • To frequent a public park.
  • noun In English law, a tract of land inclosed and privileged for wild beasts of chase, by the monarch's grant or by prescription.
  • noun A considerable extent of pasture and woodland, surrounding or adjoining a country-house and devoted primarily to purposes of recreation or enjoyment, and often serving to support a herd of cattle or a flock of sheep, or, in Europe, stocked with deer.
  • noun A piece of ground, usually of considerable extent, set apart and maintained for public use, and laid out in such a way as to afford pleasure to the eye as well as opportunity for open-air recreation: as, Central Park in New York, or Hyde Park in London.
  • noun An inclosed piece of ground suitable for tillage or pasture; an inclosed field.
  • noun A high plateau-like valley, resembling the “holes” and “prairies” of the more northern parts of the Rocky Mountain ranges.
  • noun Milit.: The space or inclosure occupied by the guns, wagons, animals, pontoons, powder, provisions, stores, etc., when brought together, or the objects themselves: as, a park of artillery, of provisions, of wagons, etc.
  • noun A complete set or equipment, as of guns, tools, etc.: as, a park of siege-guns.
  • noun A large net placed at the margin of the sea, with only one entrance, which is next the shore, and is left dry by the ebb of the tide.
  • noun In oyster-culture, a sunken bed on which oysters are placed for reproduction and growth, and which is filled with water by each high tide.
  • noun A prison.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To promenade or drive in a park; also, of horses, to display style or gait on a park drive.
  • intransitive verb To come to a stop [in a vehicle] off of the public road and leave the vehicle standing; -- typically the motor of a parked vehicle is not left running.
  • transitive verb To inclose in a park, or as in a park.
  • transitive verb (Mil.) To bring together in a park, or compact body
  • transitive verb In oyster culture, to inclose in a park.
  • transitive verb To bring (a vehicle) to a stop and leave it standing; -- typically a parked vehicle is off of the public road, the motor is not running, and the driver has left the vehicle.
  • transitive verb informal To place (an object) in a temporary location.
  • noun (Eng. Law) A piece of ground inclosed, and stored with beasts of the chase, which a man may have by prescription, or the king's grant.
  • noun A tract of ground kept in its natural state, about or adjacent to a residence, as for the preservation of game, for walking, riding, or the like.
  • noun A piece of ground, in or near a city or town, inclosed and kept for ornament and recreation
  • noun (Mil.) A space occupied by the animals, wagons, pontoons, and materials of all kinds, as ammunition, ordnance stores, hospital stores, provisions, etc., when brought together; also, the objects themselves
  • noun A partially inclosed basin in which oysters are grown.
  • noun Any place where vehicles are assembled according to a definite arrangement; also, the vehicles.
  • noun A position of the gear lever in a vehicle with automatic transmission, used when the vehicle is stopped, in which the transmission is in neutral and a brake is engaged.
  • noun See under Artillery.
  • noun a small, low carriage, for use in parks.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A tract of ground kept in its natural state, about or adjacent to a residence, as for the preservation of game, for walking, riding, or the like.
  • noun A piece of ground, in or near a city or town, enclosed and kept for ornament and recreation

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, game preserve, enclosed tract of land, from Old French parc, from Vulgar Latin *parricus, fence, from *parra, perhaps, “wooden bar, espalier”; akin to Spanish parra, grapevine grown in an espalier, and French barre, bar; see barre.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English park, from Old French parc ("livestock pen"), from Medieval Latin parcus, parricus, from Frankish *parric (“enclosure, pen”), from Proto-Germanic *parrukaz (“enclosure, fence”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)par- (“beam, log”). Cognate with Old High German pfarrih, pferrih ("enclosure, pen"), Old English pearroc ("enclosure"), Old Norse parrak ("enclosure, pen" also "distress, anxiety"). More at parrock, paddock.

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Examples

  • If 'twa'n't perfectly ridiculous I'd say 'twas to be a park -- just imagine a _park_! "

    Joyce's Investments A Story for Girls Fannie E. Newberry

  • The word park was added to English during the medieval period, but it came attached to specific meanings introduced by speakers of French, whose rule of England deeply influenced English.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • The word park was added to English during the medieval period, but it came attached to specific meanings introduced by speakers of French, whose rule of England deeply influenced English.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • I use the term park loosely because it was essentially some green space in between a public pool and an elementary school.

    drbigbeef Diary Entry drbigbeef 2007

  • A reconstructed form of the English word park is *parruk, used in its prehistoric ancestor language West Germanic, which was spoken until around fifteen hundred years ago.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • A reconstructed form of the English word park is *parruk, used in its prehistoric ancestor language West Germanic, which was spoken until around fifteen hundred years ago.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • There's a new smoking ban in restaurants and bars now, so the park is a place to catch young Syrians taking a cigarette break and pose an informal poll: How many here have a job?

    Syrian Youth Unprepared For Market-Driven Economy 2010

  • There's a new smoking ban in restaurants and bars now, so the park is a place to catch young Syrians taking a cigarette break and pose an informal poll: How many here have a job?

    Syrian Youth Unprepared For Market-Driven Economy 2010

  • Clarification before someone starts wondering … the name of the park is actually “Zion National Park.”

    I return from beyond 2009

  • There's a new smoking ban in restaurants and bars now, so the park is a place to catch young Syrians taking a cigarette break and pose an informal poll: How many here have a job?

    Syrian Youth Unprepared For Market-Driven Economy 2010

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