murk

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See also: mürk

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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), Ancient Greek ἀμορβός (amorbós, dark).

Alternative forms

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Adjective

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murk (comparative murker, superlative murkest)

  1. Dark, murky.
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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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).

Noun

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murk (uncountable)

  1. Darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment.
    Synonym: gloom
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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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).

Verb

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murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)

  1. To make murky or be murky; to cloud or obscure, or to be clouded or obscured.
    • 1918, Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons[1]:
      Dawn had been murking through the smoky windows, growing stronger for half an hour...
Translations
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Etymology 4

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Possibly an alteration of merc, from clipping of mercenary.

Alternative forms

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Verb

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murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)

  1. (African-American Vernacular, MLE) To murder or seriously injure.
    • 1991, Camp Lo, Coolie High:
      cause we be murkin from the boogie
      And shittin on the crowds
      'cause they jive fakin woody.
    • 2010, Dana Dane, Numbers, page 232:
      That's why he was able to catch Crush out there sleeping and why he murked him before he could ask him any questions.
    • 2011, Treasure Hernandez, Baltimore Chronicles, volume 2:
      He clowned Sticks, and Sticks murked him for no reason. And I don't know for sure, but I think he murked Trail.
    • 2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club[2], archived from the original on 31 May 2018:
      In truth, there are Easter eggs planted in just about every frame of Ready Player One, which never misses an opportunity to insert a recognizable character (hey, is that Jason Voorhees getting merked during the film’s first-person shooter level?) or toss a sop to the faithful.
    • 2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane:
      Yas (Vivian Oparah): And where is this, uh, summit of doom taking place?
      Dom (David Jonsson): Il Giardino. There. Used to be "our" place.
      Yas: No. Absolutely not. Text her, you can't make it. We'll go to Laser Quest, merk some eight-year-olds.
Derived terms
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Anagrams

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