hawk
/ˈhɔːk/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms hawks hawking hawked
- noun A diurnal predatory bird of the family Accipitridae, smaller than an eagle. “It is illegal to hunt hawks or other raptors in many parts of the world.”
- noun Any diurnal predatory terrestrial bird of similar size and appearance to the accipitrid hawks, such as a falcon.
- noun (entomology) Any of various species of dragonfly of the genera Apocordulia and Austrocordulia, endemic to Australia.
- noun (politics) An advocate of aggressive political positions and actions.
- noun (game theory) An uncooperative or purely selfish participant in an exchange or game, especially when untrusting, acquisitive or treacherous. Refers specifically to the prisoner's dilemma, a.k.a. the Hawk-Dove game.
- noun (US, especially Chicago, and nationwide in African-American, often with "the") Cold, sharp or biting wind.
- verb (transitive) To hunt with a hawk.
- verb (intransitive) To make an attack while on the wing; to soar and strike like a hawk. “to hawk at flies”
- noun A plasterer's tool, made of a flat surface with a handle below, used to hold an amount of plaster prior to application to the wall or ceiling being worked on: a mortarboard.
- verb (transitive) To sell; to offer for sale by outcry in the street; to carry (merchandise) about from place to place for sale; to peddle. “The vendors were hawking their wares from little tables lining either side of the market square.”
- noun A noisy effort to force up phlegm from the throat.
- verb (transitive, intransitive) To expectorate, to cough up (something, such as mucus) from one's throat; to produce (something) by coughing or clearing one's throat. “to hawk a loogie”
- verb (transitive, intransitive) To try to cough up something from one's throat; to clear the throat loudly; to cough heavily, especially causing uvular frication. “Grandpa sat on the front porch, hawking and wheezing, as he packed his pipe with cheap tobacco.”
- proper noun A surname; variant forms Hauke, Hawke.
Synonyms
warmonger war hawk mortarboard tout hawking peddle monger huckster vend pitch clear the throat
Antonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English hauk, hauke, hawke, havek, from Old English hafoc, from Proto-West Germanic *habuk, from Proto-Germanic *habukaz, controversially derived from Proto-Indo-European *kopuǵos, perhaps ultimately derived from *kap- (“seize”).
Cognate with West Frisian hauk, German Low German Haavke, Dutch havik, German Habicht, Swedish hök, Danish høg, Norwegian Bokmål hauk, Norwegian Nynorsk hauk, Faroese heykur, Icelandic haukur, Finnish haukka, Estonian haugas; also Latin capys, capus (“bird of prey”), Albanian gabonjë, shkabë (“eagle”), Russian ко́бец (kóbec, “falcon”), Polish kobuz (“Eurasian Hobby”)).
Uncertain; perhaps from Middle English hache (“battle-axe”), or from a variant use of the above, for this compare with Russian со́кол (sókol, “falcon, but also a hawk (plaster's tool), mortarboard”).
Back-formation from hawker.
Probably imitative, like hock (“cough”), hack (“cough”), although see the latter entry for more.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of numerous species and genera of rapacious birds of the family Falconidæ. They differ from the true falcons in lacking the prominent tooth and notch of the bill, and in having shorter and less pointed wings. Many are of large size and grade into the eagles.
- verb To catch, or attempt to catch, birds by means of hawks trained for the purpose, and let loose on the prey; to practice falconry.
- verb To make an attack while on the wing; to soar and strike like a hawk; --generally with at; as, to hawk at flies. Dryden.
- verb To clear the throat with an audible sound by forcing an expiratory current of air through the narrow passage between the depressed soft palate and the root of the tongue, thus aiding in the removal of foreign substances.
Etymology [OE. hauk (prob. fr. Icel.), havek, AS. hafoc, heafoc; akin to D. havik, OHG. habuh, G. habicht, Icel. haukr, Sw. hök, Dan. hög, prob. from the root of E. heave.]
Etymology [W. hochi.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hawk”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details