mark
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /mɑːk/
ipa: /mɑɹk/
ipa: /mäː(ɾ)k/
ipa: /mæɹk/
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)k
homophone: Marc
homophone: Mark
homophone: marque
homophone: mock (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)
Forms: form: marks
form: marking
form: marked
form: marked
form: marke
form: merk
form: marc
Etymology: From Middle English mark, merk, merke, from Old English mearc (“mark, sign, line of division; standard; boundary, limit, term, border; defined area, district, province”), from Proto-West Germanic *marku, from Proto-Germanic *markō (“boundary; boundary marker”), from Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs (“edge, boundary, border”).
Compare march.
Cognates
* Dutch mark, merk (“mark, brand”)
* German Mark (“mark; borderland”), Marke (“mark, brand”)
* Swedish mark (“mark, land, territory”)
* Icelandic mark (“mark, sign”)
* Latin margō (“edge, margin”)
* Persian مرز (marz, “limit, boundary”)
* Sanskrit मर्या (maryā, “limit, mark, boundary”), मार्ग (mārga, “mark, section”).
Senses: examples: text: to mark a box or bale of merchandise
text: to mark clothing with one's name
text: [I]f you drink much from a bottle marked “poison,” it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.
ref: 1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Down the Rabbit-Hole”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 10:
text: Her son wrote badly, as if fearful of marking the page at all.
ref: 1969, William Trevor, chapter 11, in Mrs. Eckdorf in O’Neill’s Hotel, Penguin, published 1973, page 177:
glosses: To put a mark on (something); to make (something) recognizable by a mark; to label or write on (something).
examples: text: See where this pencil has marked the paper.
text: The floor was marked with wine and blood.
text: Those Wheels returning ne’er shall mark the Plain;
ref: 1717, Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, London: Bernard Lintott, Volume 3, Book 12, p. 229:
text: Advertisements are from time to time inserted, stating that slaves have escaped […] marked with the lash, branded with red-hot irons, the initials of their master’s name burned into their flesh;
ref: 1855, Frederick Douglass, “speech given on 12 May, 1846. Appendix.”, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC, part II (Life as a Freeman), page 410:
synonyms: blemish
scar
scratch
stain
glosses: To leave a mark (often an undesirable or unwanted one) on (something).
examples: text: The death of his wife, followed by months of being alone, had marked him with guilt and shame and had left an unbreaking loneliness on him.
ref: 1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 10, in The Grapes of Wrath, Penguin, published 1976, page 104:
text: What Uncle Marc had been through as a slave marked him, I’m sure, but I don’t know how much. How can you know what a man would be like if he had grown up unmarked by horror?
ref: 1998, Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents, New York: Seven Stories Press, page 279:
text: It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today […].
ref: 2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19:
glosses: To have a long-lasting negative impact on (someone or something).
examples: text: She folded over the corner of the page to mark where she left off reading.
text: Some animals mark their territory by urinating.
glosses: To create an indication of (a location).
examples: text: This monument marks the spot where Wolfe died.
text: A bell marked the end of visiting hours.
text: And where the jolly Troop [of elves and fairies] had led the round
The Grass unbidden rose, and mark’d the Ground:
ref: 1700, John Dryden, “The Wife of Bath Her Tale”, in Fables Ancient and Modern, London: Jacob Tonson, page 479:
text: She gave her an answer which marked her contempt, and instantly left the room,
ref: 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 4, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 49:
text: […] the cloth was laid for him […] and a plate laid thereon to mark that the table was retained,
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 58, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 528:
text: […] the lazy circling vultures marked the Hill of Execution, which was littered with human bones and scavenged by hyaenas.
ref: 1973, Jan Morris, Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1980, Part 1, Chapter 3, section 6, p. 61:
text: Her forehead, lashed deep with lines, marked her fifty-six years.
ref: 2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, New York: Penguin, Part 1, p. 16:
synonyms: demonstrate
indicate
manifest
reveal
show
signal
glosses: To be an indication of (something); to show where (something) is located.
examples: text: Prices are marked on individual items.
text: In her Bible, the words of Christ were marked in red.
text: […] it was in the middle of May, on the sixteenth Day I think, as well as my poor wooden Calendar would reckon; for I markt all upon the Post still;
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 219:
text: “What does the clock mark now?”
“Eight minutes to seven.”
ref: 1875, Benjamin Farjeon, At the Sign of the Silver Flagon, New York: Harper, Part 3, Chapter 2, p. 84:
synonyms: display
show
write
glosses: To indicate (something) in writing or by other symbols.
examples: text: […] on opening it [the handkerchief], I saw an S mark’d in one of the corners.
ref: 1768, Laurence Sterne, “Maria”, in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, volume 2, London: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, page 175:
text: I mark this cross of blood upon you, as a sign that I do it.
ref: 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, Book 3, Chapter 10, p. 220:
text: […] I was testing a stack of old whitewalls, dunking them in the water and marking a yellow chalk circle around each leak.
ref: 1988, Barbara Kingsolver, chapter 6, in The Bean Trees, New York: HarperCollins, page 82:
synonyms: draw
trace
glosses: To create (a mark) on a surface.
examples: text: The national holiday is marked by fireworks.
text: It was only four thirty but Gerald was marking his guests’ arrival with a Pimm’s, […]
ref: 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 11, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 276:
synonyms: commemorate
solemnize
glosses: To celebrate or acknowledge (an event) through an action of some kind.
examples: text: His courage and energy marked him as a leader.
text: […] the son approached her with a cheerful eagerness which marked her as his peculiar object,
ref: 1815, Jane Austen, chapter 8, in Emma, volume 2, London: John Murray, page 134:
text: The black dress, gold cross on the watch-chain, the hairless face, and the soft, black wideawake hat would have marked him as a holy man anywhere in all India.
ref: 1901, Rudyard Kipling, chapter 5, in Kim, London: Macmillan, published 1902, page 115:
text: His long thin falling-away cheekbones marked him as a member of either the Xhosa or Zulu tribe.
ref: 1968, Bessie Head, chapter 1, in When Rain Clouds Gather, Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, published 2013, page 1:
text: Enquiring about the movement of trains—even if you were a passenger on one—could mark you as a saboteur.
ref: 2016, Julian Barnes, The Noise of Time, Random House, Prologue:
glosses: To identify (someone as a particular type of person or as having a particular role).
raw_tags: of things
examples: text: The new captain would read the fitness report and mark him once and for all as an unreliable fool […]
ref: 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Part 2, Chapter 10, p. 113:
synonyms: classify
mark out
glosses: To assign (someone) to a particular category or class.
raw_tags: of people
examples: text: When a king, hath once markt for his hate, / A man inferior; […] / […] euermore, he rakes vp in his brest, / Brands of quicke anger;
ref: [1611?], Homer, “The First Booke of Homers Iliads”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC, page 28:
text: […] I know now that humankind marks certain people for death.
ref: 1970, Saul Bellow, chapter 5, in Mr. Sammler’s Planet, New York: Viking, page 230:
synonyms: destine
mark out
target
glosses: To choose or intend (someone) for a particular end or purpose.
raw_tags: of people
examples: text: The creek marks the boundary between the two farms.
text: That summer marked the beginning of her obsession with cycling.
text: […] we hastened toward the bordering desert which marked our entrance into the realm of Tal Hajus.
ref: 1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 16, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1917 October, →OCLC, page 172:
text: Although the Second World War marked a turning away from inorganic chemicals as pesticides into the wonder world of the carbon molecule, a few of the old materials persist.
ref: 1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 3, in Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 17:
text: My grandfather’s short employ at the Ford Motor Company marked the only time any Stephanides has ever worked in the automobile industry.
ref: 2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Farrar, Straux, Giroux, page 93:
synonyms: represent
see
glosses: To be a point in time or space at which something takes place; to accompany or be accompanied by (an event, action, etc.); to coincide with.
examples: text: […] he still retained that simple, unostentatious elegance, that marks the man of real fashion—
ref: 1818, Susan Ferrier, chapter 18, in Marriage, volume 3, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, page 264:
text: “Ah,” replied Roger Chillingworth, with that quietness which […] marked all his deportment,
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 9, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 145:
text: […] Cyril’s attitude to his mother was marked by a certain benevolent negligence
ref: 1908, Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives’ Tale, New York: Modern Library, published 1911, Book 4, Chapter 1, p. 487:
synonyms: characterize
typify
glosses: To be typical or characteristic of (something).
examples: text: Indeed the smoke was such they scarce could mark
Their friends from foes,
ref: 1823 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos VI.—VII.—and VIII., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto VIII, stanza 130, page 313:
text: Despite their obvious differences these poets had a common view of life which marks them from their predecessors […]
ref: 1943, Maurice Bowra, chapter 1, in The Heritage of Symbolism, London: Macmillan, published 1954, page 2:
text: Each day was so like the day before, and Christmas Day, when it came, would not have anything to mark it from all the others.
ref: 1983, Elizabeth George Speare, chapter 24, in The Sign of the Beaver,, New York: Dell, published 1984, page 127:
glosses: To distinguish (one person or thing from another).
examples: text: Mark my words: that boy’s up to no good.
text: More are men’s ends mark’d than their lives before:
ref: 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene 1]:
text: I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you.
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 37:37:
text: When they had passed out of the wood into the pasture-land beyond, Ruth once more turned to mark him.
ref: 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 5, in Ruth, volume 1, London: Chapman and Hall, page 137:
text: “When Wolsey came down, I said, mark him, he’s a sharp fellow. […]”
ref: 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, New York: Henry Holt, Part 6, Chapter 2, p. 522:
synonyms: heed
look at
observe
watch
qualifier: dated except in the phrase "mark my words"
glosses: To focus one's attention on (something or someone); to pay attention to, to take note of.
examples: text: Some of them [the Animals] coming forward near the place where I lay, gave me an opportunity of distinctly marking their Form.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV), page 161:
text: He bent his eyes involuntarily upon the father as he spoke, and marked his uneasiness, for he coloured directly and turned his head away.
ref: 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 53, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 525:
text: 1881, John Bascom, “Improvements in Language” in The Western: A Journal of Literature, Education, and Art, New Series, Volume 7, No. 6, December, 1881, p. 499,
[…] it is to be remembered that a poor speller is a poor pronouncer. The ear does not mark the sound any more exactly than the eye marks the letters.
text: Helm had a great horn, and soon it was marked that before he sallied forth he would blow a blast upon it that echoed in the Deep;
ref: 1955, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, published 1965, Appendix A, pp. 347-348:
synonyms: hear
note
notice
observe
perceive
see
glosses: To become aware of (something) through the physical senses.
examples: text: I marked my man, standing on the catwalk, and waited to throw [my javelin] till he started to climb inboard before they rammed.
ref: 1956, Mary Renault, chapter 22, in The Last of the Wine, New York: Pantheon, page 268:
glosses: To hold (someone) in one's line of sight.
examples: text: The teacher had to spend her weekend marking all the tests.
text: Under the proposals, an assurance is given that GBR (in the words of the plan) will not be marking its own homework.
ref: 2024 May 15, 'Industry Insider', “Labour's plan for the railway”, in RAIL, number 1009, page 68:
synonyms: grade
score
glosses: To indicate the correctness of and give a score to (a school assignment, exam answers, etc.).
examples: text: to mark a student absent.
glosses: To record that (someone) has a particular status.
examples: text: to mark the points in a game of billiards or a card game
text: Dan was to mark while the doctor and I played [billiards].
ref: 1869, Mark Twain, chapter 12, in The Innocents Abroad, Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, page 116:
glosses: To keep account of; to enumerate and register; to keep score.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To follow a player not in possession of the ball when defending, to prevent them receiving a pass easily.
qualifier: Australian rules football
glosses: To catch the ball directly from a kick of 15 metres or more without having been touched in transit, resulting in a free kick.
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To put a marker in the place of one's ball.
qualifier: singing
glosses: To sing softly, sometimes an octave lower than usual, in order to protect one's voice during a rehearsal.
Derived terms: bemark
earmark
man-mark
markable
mark as
markdown
mark down
mark down as
marked
marker
marking
mark my word
mark my words
mark off
mark one's own homework
mark out
mark someone's card
mark time
mark up
mark-up
mark with a white stone
milemark
mismark
nonmarking
outmark
overmark
pressmark
undermark
unmark
unmarked
X marks the spot