barked

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of bark.

   The sergeant barked commands across the parade ground.

   She had barked her shin against the leg of the table.

   Note

   One regular form serves both the noisy verb and the stripping one, and only context tells them apart. A dog or a sergeant that barked made a sharp sound. Someone who barked a shin or a log rubbed or peeled away its outer layer. After have, or in the passive (the trunk was barked), it is the participle. Standing alone as the verb, it is the simple past.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Having bark of a particular type, paired with a preceding word that names the texture, color, or thickness of that bark.

   Botanists sorted the specimens into rough-barked and smooth-barked varieties.

   The thick-barked cork oak resists fire far better than its thin-barked neighbors.

   Note

   Always the tail of a hyphenated compound: rough-barked, smooth-barked, thick-barked. It cannot be compared, and it does not stand on its own. A tree described simply as barked is one that has been stripped, which is the participle of the past-tense verb and means nearly the opposite. The compound keeps the bark; the bare word takes it away.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2