hearken

(redirected from harkened)
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Related to harkened: harkened back, hearkened

hear·ken

also har·ken (här′kən)

intr.v. hear·kened, hear·ken·ing, hear·kens

Archaic To listen attentively; give heed.

Phrasal Verb:

hearken back

Usage Problem To hark back.

[Middle English herknen, from Old English hercnian; see kous- in Indo-European roots.]

Usage Note: Traditionally, hearken means "to listen." The word has an archaic and formal air today, in part stemming from its extensive use in the King James Bible (as in Mark 7:14 "Hearken unto me, every one of you") and in traditional storytelling. In contemporary usage, hearken is more often used where one might expect hark, no doubt because of sound similarity: The movie hearkens back to the sci-fi films of the 1950s. The Usage Panel has mixed feelings about this. In our 2009 survey, just 48 percent accepted this example.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

hearken

(ˈhɑːkən) or

harken

archaic to listen to (something)

[Old English heorcnian; see hark]

ˈhearkener n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

heark•en

or hark•en

(ˈhɑr kən)

v.i.

1. to give heed or attention to what is said; listen.

v.t.

2. Archaic. to listen to; hear.

[1150–1200; Middle English hercnen, Old English he(o)rcnian, suffixed form of assumed *heorcian; see hark, -en¹]

heark′en•er, n.

hearken

- To pay attention or listen; it can also mean "to return to a previous topic."

hearken

Past participle: hearkened
Gerund: hearkening

Imperative
hearken
hearken

Present
I hearken
you hearken
he/she/it hearkens
we hearken
you hearken
they hearken

Preterite
I hearkened
you hearkened
he/she/it hearkened
we hearkened
you hearkened
they hearkened

Present Continuous
I am hearkening
you are hearkening
he/she/it is hearkening
we are hearkening
you are hearkening
they are hearkening

Present Perfect
I have hearkened
you have hearkened
he/she/it has hearkened
we have hearkened
you have hearkened
they have hearkened

Past Continuous
I was hearkening
you were hearkening
he/she/it was hearkening
we were hearkening
you were hearkening
they were hearkening

Past Perfect
I had hearkened
you had hearkened
he/she/it had hearkened
we had hearkened
you had hearkened
they had hearkened

Future
I will hearken
you will hearken
he/she/it will hearken
we will hearken
you will hearken
they will hearken

Future Perfect
I will have hearkened
you will have hearkened
he/she/it will have hearkened
we will have hearkened
you will have hearkened
they will have hearkened

Future Continuous
I will be hearkening
you will be hearkening
he/she/it will be hearkening
we will be hearkening
you will be hearkening
they will be hearkening

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been hearkening
you have been hearkening
he/she/it has been hearkening
we have been hearkening
you have been hearkening
they have been hearkening

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been hearkening
you will have been hearkening
he/she/it will have been hearkening
we will have been hearkening
you will have been hearkening
they will have been hearkening

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been hearkening
you had been hearkening
he/she/it had been hearkening
we had been hearkening
you had been hearkening
they had been hearkening

Conditional
I would hearken
you would hearken
he/she/it would hearken
we would hearken
you would hearken
they would hearken

Past Conditional
I would have hearkened
you would have hearkened
he/she/it would have hearkened
we would have hearkened
you would have hearkened
they would have hearkened

Collins English Verb Tables © HarperCollins Publishers 2011

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Verb

hearken - listen; used mostly in the imperative

hark, harken

listen - hear with intention; "Listen to the sound of this cello"

hearken

also harken
verb

1. To make an effort to hear something:

hark, listen.

Archaic: list.

Idiom: give an ear.

2. Archaic. To perceive by ear, usually attentively:

attend, hark, hear, heed, listen.

Idiom: give one's ear.

Translations

ascoltare attentamente orecchiare

hearken

[ˈhɑːkən] VI (archaic, liter) to hearken to → escuchar

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

hearken

vi (old, liter) → horchen (→ to auf +acc)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

I suppose you think yourself more handsomer than any of us."--"Hand her down the bit of glass from over the cupboard," cries another; "I'd wash the blood from my face before I talked of my beauty."--"You'd better have minded what the parson says," cries the eldest, "and not a harkened after men voke."--"Indeed, child, and so she had," says the mother, sobbing: "she hath brought a disgrace upon us all.

View in context

It was during this period that he might have harkened to the memories of the lair and the stream and run back to the Wild.

View in context

When she harkened to the wind that rattled in the chimney and dislodged the tiles on the roof, she imagined that he was being buffeted by the same storm, perched on top of a shattered mast, with his whole body bend backward and covered with sea-foam; or,--these were recollections of the engraved geography --he was being devoured by savages, or captured in a forest by apes, or dying on some lonely coast.