[f. BARK v.1 + -ING2.]
1. Uttering barks; ‘giving tongue,’ yelping.
1552. Huloet, s.v. Addition, A barking dogge.
1842. Tennyson, Day Dream, 136. Barking dogs and crowing cocks.
2. transf. Uttering harsh, rough, or angry sounds, like a dog’s barking; harsh-sounding.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (1869), 258. The rude and barking language of the Affricans.
c. 1800. Kirke White, Christm.-Day, 36. He had words To soothe the barking waves.
b. Barking-bird, the Pteroptochus Tarnu, of Chiloe, so named from its voice; barking-iron (slang), a pistol.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xiii. (1873), 288. An allied species is called by the natives ‘Guidguid,’ and by the English the barking-bird.
1847. Le Fanu, T. O’Brien, 63. Put up your barking-iron, and no more noise.
3. fig. Raising clamorous outcry, noisily aggressive.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. vii. 205. I stop thy currish barking chops.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip., II. Wks. (1851), 40. His barking curses, and Excommunications.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 21. Bread and salt can appease the wayfarer’s barking stomach.
