(n.) Any one numerous species of singing birds of the genus Alauda and allied genera (family Alaudidae). They mostly belong to Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. In America they are represented by the shore larks, or horned by the shore larks, or horned larks, of the genus Otocoris. The true larks have holaspidean tarsi, very long hind claws, and usually, dull, sandy brown colors.
(v. i.) To catch larks; as, to go larking.
Example Sentences:
(1) Owls were more hypnotizable than larks in the morning, and larks were also significantly more hypnotizable in the evening than owls.
(2) The three young men were trying to get to grips with a troubling scene in which they lark about with a baby in its pram, poking it, pulling off its nappy, goading each other until they stone it to death.
(3) Imitating the white, vaudeville television love-to-hate wrestler Gorgeous George, his forecasts bragged the precise round he was going to win, sometimes combining such box-office larks with couplets of doggerel.
(4) Explaining why they continue to increase the size of the UN consolidated appeal each year, despite not acheiving full funding year-on-year, Larke said: “We base our ask on the real needs we assess, not on the money we expect to get - to do so the other way round would be dishonest.
(5) This is Ferguson in his element, larking about with a world-class footballer whose development he has overseen from the star's late teenage years.
(6) Lacking self-confidence and plagued by ill-health, she was hospitalised several times during the 1950s, and took failure hard, blaming herself in particular for the lack of success of Jean Anouilh's The Lark, in which she starred as St Joan in 1955.
(7) I look at my Instagram the week before [the tweets], and I was happy as a lark.
(8) And all three looked as if they were ready to Snapchat their larking pose to all their schoolfriends.
(9) It’s not just readers who nonetheless see North Korea as a bit of a lark.
(10) Someone suggested speaking to a newsagent in Lark Lane, others a supermarket in Lodge Lane that reflects the multi-ethnic nature of Toxteth.
(11) Thinking it was quite a lark we joined in and the ensuing 10-minute interval on the hallowed turf was a carnival atmosphere with much fun had by all, the highlight being the conga lines dancing to the chant of 'Bulstrode is a wanker'.
(12) We see the upturned faces of the soldiers as they look for the larks in one of Rosenberg's most famous poems, "Returning, We Hear the Larks".
(13) Studies of Maaløe, Lark, and others with amino acid- and thymine-starved cultures revealed successive steps in the biosynthesis of Escherichia coli chromosomes.
(14) Among the rareties: ivory gull, sharp-tailed sandpiper, lark sparrow and warblers from every corner of the western hemisphere.
(15) Ah, another opportunity for Hairy Dave to lark about the dancefloor in a comedy fashion.
(16) It’s quite probable that a large number of these “signatures” are some combination of a lark and the same yahoos signing multiple times.
(17) * A soft siffle, high in the air like a distant lark, or the note of a penny whistle, faint and falling.
(18) Then Antiques Roadshow drew 6.92 million (26.4%) in the next hour, while Lark Rise to Candleford had 6.31 million (23%) in the 8pm hour.
(19) I fantasise that maybe one of those people will read the article and think "I'm going to give this gaming lark a try" and that they will buy a console on their way home from work, and that it'll change their life for the better.
(20) Seemingly spontaneous holiday larks abound; we're one puddle of purple vomit away from the dream Brits abroad weekend.
Whim
Definition:
(n.) The European widgeon.
(n.) A sudden turn or start of the mind; a temporary eccentricity; a freak; a fancy; a capricious notion; a humor; a caprice.
(n.) A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes; -- called also whim gin, and whimsey.
(v. i.) To be subject to, or indulge in, whims; to be whimsical, giddy, or freakish.
Example Sentences:
(1) A group called Campaign for Houston , which led the opposition, described the ordinance as “an attack on the traditional family” designed for “gender-confused men who … can call themselves ‘women’ on a whim”.
(2) If we’re going to change the model, we can’t just do it on a whim of government or the people who design these courses.” What he does like about Think Ahead is that participants will be doing “proper social work”, even if, in his view, they will be unprepared for the task.
(3) The previous Ba’athist and Shia governments tried to deviate the Muslim generation from their path through their educational programmes that concord with their governments and political whims.
(4) Your whims are Benji's command, readers – tell us where to go!
(5) Instead it amounts to exploitation, decided at the whim of a Jobcentre Plus adviser."
(6) The only thing she wouldn't do was We Shall Overcome, too sacred to perform on a whim she tells me when I meet her later, besides which - and here she giggles - "we probably won't overcome.
(7) I’m probably the hardest bandleader to work for, but I do it for love.” His band have rehearsed around 300 songs, from which Prince can choose at whim, which makes playing live more fun that it used to be.
(8) But its purchase and use relies on satisfying personal whim, prejudice or educational fashion, not on considerations of educational efficiency.
(9) Journalists who work here are not part of the press pack who must always keep one eye looking over their shoulder at their proprietor’s political whims – on business, on taxation or the European Union.
(10) If your reforms are a matter of ideology, legacy, whim and faith, then, like many of your predecessors, you could simply say so, and leave "evidence" to people who mean it.
(11) During the local election campaign Farage has also jettisoned, seemingly on his whim, longstanding policies such as a flat rate of tax.
(12) The very things that give small charities their allure can also be their greatest limitations Having been managed by a founder in three out of my four major jobs, and working closely with one in the fourth, I have lived out all the symptoms: ad-hoc practices with no systems and processes, unilateral decisions at the whim of the founder, a resistance to professionalising and losing the personal touch, and a way of working that revolves entirely around one person because the assumption is that this immortal personality will be around forever.
(13) It isn’t a whim of Thea’s not to go back to the classroom.
(14) Significant peptide release occurred only when B15 was stimulated at high frequency or at lower frequencies with a relatively long burst duration (Whim and Lloyd, 1989).
(15) He has been right too often in this tournament for it to be down to random chance, to the whims of the gods and to be about anything but cold logic, a huge ego and a steely, steely nerve.
(16) We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord ... in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias, in those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands.” 7) Being rivals or boastful.
(17) That’s before fuel, water, food and tips for the crew, who will cater to the guests’ every whim as the yacht hops from Sardinia to Monaco to Greece or, during the winter, the Caribbean.
(18) But while both of us were at their whim, I pointed out that it was he, not security, who had notified Special Branch.
(19) Yet the choice of who should be employed as counselors is based on little more than personal whims of decision makers.
(20) Martin Donnelly, permanent secretary of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), did not just wake up one morning and, on a whim, write a lengthy and carefully argued defence of the old Whitehall verities.