mirk

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k

Noun

mirk (uncountable)

1. Archaic spelling of murk.
   • 1899, John Buchan, Grey Weather, published 2008, page 4:

     The thickness of mirk is bad enough, but the thickness of white, illimitable ether is worse a thousandfold, for it closes the eye and mazes the wits.

   • 1900, Maurice Hewlett, The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay, published 2008, page 18:

     Outside the chapel in the weeping mirk a squire held his shield, another his helm, a groom walked his horse.

   • 1900, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War, published 2010, unnumbered page:

     The English cries of the soldiers were answered in English by the Boers, and slouch hat or helmet dimly seen in the mirk was the only badge of friend or foe.

   • 2011, Douglas Watt, Testament of a Witch, page 178:

     She disappeared into the gathering mirk.

Verb

mirk (third-person singular simple present mirks, present participle mirking, simple past and past participle mirked)

1. Archaic spelling of murk.
   • 1903, J. Vinton Webster, Augusta: A Drama in Four Acts, published 2004, act 4, scene 1, page 121:

     And there they lay so near his little heart, / With whispering of things that happened not, / Until the serpent green had mirked / His manly vision in a way that lost / The anchorage of balanced sanity.

Adjective

mirk (comparative mirker, superlative mirkest)

1. Archaic spelling of murk.
   • c. 1590, Robert Greene, The Scottish History of James the Fourth, Act 5, Chorus 6, Norman Sanders (editor), 1973, The Revels Plays: James the Fourth, page 128,

     What gars this din of mirk and baleful harm, / Where everywean is all betaint with bloud?

   • 1809, Lord Byron, “Stanzas Composed During a Thunderstorm”, in The Works of Lord Byron, volume 7, published 1834, page 311:

     Chill and mirk is the nightly blast, / Where Pindus' mountains rise, / And angry clouds are pouring fast / The vengeance of the skies.

   • 1823, John Galt, Ringan Gilhaize: Or, The Covenanters, volume 1, page 95:

     It was by this time the mirkest of the gloaming, for they had purposely tarried on the journey that they might enter Edinburgh at dusk.

   • 1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Thrawn Janet”, in The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables:

     It's a lang, laigh, mirk chalmer, perishin' cauld in winter, an' no very dry even in the tap o' the simmer, for the manse stands near the burn.

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mirk.

Lithuanian

Verb

mirk

1. second-person singular imperative of mirti

Scots

Noun

mirk (uncountable)

1. Darkness, twilight.

Verb

mirk (third-person singular simple present mirks, present participle mirkin, simple past mirkit, past participle mirkit)

1. To darken, to make or become dark.

Adjective

mirk (comparative mirker, superlative mirkest)

1. Dark, gloomy, obscure.
   • 1783, Robert Burns, My Nanie, O:

     The westlin wind blaws loud an' shill; / The night's baith mirk and rainy, O

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)