American Heritage Dictionary Entry: hawk HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key. Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window. guide to the dictionary THE USAGE PANEL The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions. The Panelists NEED HELP SOLVING A CROSSWORD PUZZLE? Go to our Crossword Puzzle Solver and type in the letters that you know, and the Solver will produce a list of possible solutions. -- AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android. THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more. OPEN DICTIONARY PROJECT Share your ideas for new words and new meanings of old words! Start Sharing Now! -- See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series! Find out more! INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES? Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com hawk 1 (hôk) Share: Tweet n. 1. Any of various birds of prey, especially of the genera Accipiter and Buteo in the family Accipitridae, characteristically having a short hooked bill and strong claws used for seizing. 2. Any of various similar birds of prey. 3. A person who preys on others; a shark. 4. a. One who demonstrates an actively aggressive or combative attitude, as in an argument. b. A person who favors military force or action in order to carry out foreign policy. intr.v. hawked, hawk·ing, hawks 1. To hunt with trained hawks. 2. To swoop and strike in the manner of a hawk: "It was fun to watch the scattered snail kites ... lifting and falling in the wind as they hawked across the shining grass and water" (Peter Matthiessen). [Middle English hauk, from Old English hafoc; see kap- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] hawkish adj. hawkish·ly adv. hawkish·ness n. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. hawk 2 (hôk) Share: Tweet v. hawked, hawk·ing, hawks v.intr. To peddle goods aggressively, especially by calling out. v.tr. To peddle (goods) aggressively, especially by calling out. [Middle English hauken, back-formation from hauker; see HAWKER.] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. hawk 3 (hôk) Share: Tweet v. hawked, hawk·ing, hawks v.intr. To clear or attempt to clear the throat by or as if by coughing up phlegm. v.tr. To clear the throat of (phlegm). n. An audible effort to clear the throat by expelling phlegm. [Imitative.] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices: Indo-European Roots Semitic Roots The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. 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