murk
UK /mɜːk/ · US /mɝk/ adjective, noun, verb
Forms murker murkest murks murking murked mirk mark merk
- adjective Dark, murky.
- noun Darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment.
- verb (intransitive) To make murky or be murky; to cloud or obscure, or to be clouded or obscured.
- verb To kill or eliminate.
- verb To beat up; to injure.
- verb To eliminate; to defeat overwhelmingly.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English merke, mirke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“dark, gloomy, evil”) and Old Norse myrkr (“dark, murky”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkuz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”). Cognate Danish mørk (“dark”), Norwegian mørk (“dark”), Swedish mörk (“dark”), Icelandic myrkur (“dark”), as also Albanian murg (“dark”), Proto-Slavic *morkъ (“darkness”), Lithuanian márgas (“multicolored”), murzinas (“dirty, spoiled”), Ancient Greek ἀμορβός (amorbós, “dark”).
From Middle English mirke, merke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“darkness, gloom”) and Old Norse myrkr (“darkness, gloom”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkwą, *mirkwiz (“darkness”), Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).
From Middle English mirken, probably from Old Norse myrkja, myrkva (“to make dark, darken”), from Proto-Germanic *mirkwijaną, *mirkwajaną (“to make dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).
Possibly an alteration of merc, from clipping of mercenary. First attested in the 1990s.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Dark; murky.
- noun Darkness; mirk. [Archaic] Shak.
- noun The refuse of fruit, after the juice has been expressed; marc.
Etymology [See Murky.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “murk”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details