hark back
/ˌhɑɹk ˈbæk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.81 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To allude, return, or revert (to a subject previously mentioned, etc.); also, to evoke, or long or pine for (a past era or event).
Intransitive verb
noun
Alternative form of hark-back.
noun
Alternative form of hark-back.
Example Sentences
- "He must have overshot the mark, and must hark back. So he turned his weary horse's head, and made his way back along the road to the spot where his spoor struck into it."
- "Mr. Flemyng, who had been assuaging his thirst with more champagne during the afternoon, had harked back to the subject of his morning's discourse, and was laying down an authoritative scheme of ethics, in the course of which sundry hard words, such as transcendentalism, pseudo-materialism and the like, lost a syllable here and there."
- "Harking back to the theme of a series of speeches he [George W. Bush] delivered last week, he said he was reminded that "there's still an enemy out there that would like to inflict the same kind of damage again.""
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌhɑɹk ˈbæk/
- British English: /ˌhɑːk ˈbæk/