HEARKEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hearken mean? 

• HEARKEN (verb)
  The verb HEARKEN has 1 sense:

1. listen; used mostly in the imperative

  Familiarity information: HEARKEN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEARKEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they hearken    ... he / she / it hearkens   
Past simple: hearkened   
Past participle: hearkened   
-ing form: hearkening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Listen; used mostly in the imperative

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

hark; harken; hearken

Hypernyms (to "hearken" is one way to...):

listen (hear with intention)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

Hush and hearken! for they are no great way from us.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“He must be buried here,” he said, hearkening to the sound.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

We were not many minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of each other and hearken.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This put me in a great fear, and I crawled under cover of the nearest live-oak and squatted there, hearkening, as silent as a mouse.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Even the heavy John was not unmoved by the beauty of their road, while the bowman whistled lustily or sang snatches of French love songs in a voice which might have scared the most stout-hearted maiden that ever hearkened to serenade.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I ran to the house in Soho, and (to make assurance doubly sure) destroyed my papers; thence I set out through the lamplit streets, in the same divided ecstasy of mind, gloating on my crime, light-headedly devising others in the future, and yet still hastening and still hearkening in my wake for the steps of the avenger.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Sir Nigel sat silent and distrait at his meal, while Alleyne hearkened to the clattering tongue of the Gascon, and to his talk of the glories of his own estate, his successes in love, and his triumphs in war.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mon Dieu! yes, ye would not credit it to look at him, or to hearken to his soft voice, but from the sailing from Orwell down to the foray to Paris, and that is clear twenty years, there was not a skirmish, onfall, sally, bushment, escalado or battle, but Sir Nigel was in the heart of it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)