lark

• laverock, lavrock

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: läk, IPA^(key): /lɑːk/
• (General American) enPR: lärk, IPA^(key): /lɑɹk/

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)k

From Middle English larke, laverke, from Old English lāwerce, lǣwerce, lāuricæ, from Proto-Germanic *laiwarikǭ, *laiwazikǭ (compare dialectal West Frisian larts, Dutch leeuwerik, German Lerche), from *laiwaz (borrowed into Finnish leivo, Estonian lõo), of unknown ultimate origin with no definitive cognates outside of Germanic.

lark (plural larks)

1. Any of various small, singing passerine birds of the family Alaudidae.
2. Any of various similar-appearing birds, but usually ground-living, such as the meadowlark and titlark.
3. (by extension) One who wakes early; one who is up with the larks.

   Synonyms: early bird, early riser

   Antonym: owl

• (species in Alaudidae): woodlark, skylark, magpie-lark, horned lark, sea lark, crested lark, shorelark

lark (third-person singular simple present larks, present participle larking, simple past and past participle larked)

1. To catch larks.

   to go larking

• lark on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Alaudidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Alaudidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

Origin uncertain, either

• from a northern English dialectal term lake/laik (“to play”) (around 1300, from Old Norse leika (“to play (as opposed to work)”)), with an intrusive -r- as is common in southern British dialects; or
• a shortening of skylark (1809), sailors' slang, "play roughly in the rigging of a ship", because the common European larks were proverbial for high-flying; Dutch has a similar idea in speelvogel (“playbird, a person of markedly playful nature”).

lark (plural larks)

1. A romp, frolic, some fun.
   • 1838, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 43”, in 'Oliver Twist':

     ‘Ha! ha!’ laughed Master Bates, ‘what a lark that would be, wouldn’t it, Fagin? I say, how the Artful would bother ’em wouldn’t he?’

   • 2019 November 3, ALEXIS C. MADRIGAL, “The Dangers of YouTube for Young Children”, in the Atlantic‎:

     What began as a lark has grown into something very, very big, inflating the company’s ambitions.

2. A prank.
   • 1913, George Bernard Shaw, “Act V”, in Pygmalion:

     DOOLITTLE. […] thanks to your silly joking, he leaves me a share in his Pre-digested Cheese Trust worth three thousand a year on condition that I lecture for his Wannafeller Moral Reform World League as often as they ask me […] .
     HIGGINS. The devil he does! Whew! [Brightening suddenly] What a lark!

• whim, especially in phrase on a whim, see also Thesaurus:whim

• on a lark

• skylark (in verb sense "play")

lark (third-person singular simple present larks, present participle larking, simple past and past participle larked)

1. To sport, engage in harmless pranking.
   • 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South, Chapter 35,

     […] the porter at the rail-road had seen a scuffle; or when he found it was likely to bring him in as a witness, then it might not have been a scuffle, only a little larking […]

2. To frolic, engage in carefree adventure.

• “lark” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

• Karl, Klar, Kral, klar