Word: park Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English park, from Old French parc (“livestock pen”), from Medieval Latin parcus, parricus, from Frankish *parrik (“enclosure, pen, fence”). Cognate with Dutch perk (“enclosure; flowerbed”), Old High German pfarrih, pferrih (“enclosure, pen”), Old English pearroc (“enclosure”) (whence modern English paddock), Old Norse parrak, parak (“enclosure, pen; distress, anxiety”), Icelandic parraka (“to keep pent in under restraint and coercion”). More at parrock, paddock. Pronunciation: /pɑɹk/, [pʰɑɹk], [pɑɹk], /pɑːk/, [pʰɑː(ʔ)k] 1. An area of land set aside for environment preservation or recreation. Example: She went to the park for a jog with him. Example: 17th century, Edmund Waller, At Penshurst While in the park I sing, the listening deer / Attend my passion, and forget to fear. 2. An area of land set aside for environment preservation or recreation. Example: Hyde Park in London; Central Park in New York Example: If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough. 3. An area of land set aside for environment preservation or recreation. 4. A wide, flat-bottomed valley in a mountainous region. Labels: US Example: The mountain region thus limited consists of extensive and often level-floored valleys, sometimes many miles broad, and elevated 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea, called "parks" in local topography, which are interposed between innumerable rocky mountain ridges .... Example: High Park is a depression of 10 or 12 square miles in extent […] at a general elevation of 7,500 feet. Its smooth floor is partly due to volcanic tuff of the western volcanic area, but chielfly to a find lake-bed deposit of yellowish sandstone.... 5. An area used for specific purposes. Example: a wagon park; an artillery park 6. An area used for specific purposes. 7. An area used for specific purposes. Example: business park; industrial park; science park Example: Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion." 8. An area used for specific purposes. Example: But because of their dominance in the middle of the park and the sheer volume of chances, Sunderland boss Steve Bruce must have been staggered and sickened in equal measure when the visitors took the lead five minutes after the break. 9. An inventory of matériel. Labels: UK Example: A country's tank park or artillery park. 10. A space in which to leave a car; a parking space. Labels: Australia, New-Zealand, colloquial Example: 2003, “Johnny”, "Melbourne Blackout", in Sleazegrinder (editor), Gigs from Hell: True Stories from Rock and Roll′s Frontline, page 174, We got to the 9ᵗʰ Ward and as luck would have it I found a park for my bro′s car right out the front. Example: Once they′d entered the floors of parking spaces, James found a park relatively easily, but Mark had difficulty, and only a swift sprint allowed him to catch up as James walked through the throngs of people in the casino with the determination of a man who didn′t want to be delayed. 11. The gear into which one shifts an automatic transmission when one is parking a car or truck. (Denoted with symbol P on a shifter's labeling.) Example: If a car seems to be refusing to let you shift out of park, recall that many cars have a safety interlock which requires that your foot must be pressing on the brake pedal before you can shift out of park.