Cark

care or worry.
to worry.
Historical Examples

He had had much in his life to cark and harrow, and the old sympathy and tenderness vibrated aloud, and little out of tune.
The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories Gertrude Atherton

The old, old earth is glad to turn from the cark and care of driftless centuries to the first sweet blades of green.
The Hills and the Vale Richard Jefferies

cark Hall, an old gabled manor house, for generations the residence of the Curwens and the Rawlinsons.
Historic Sites of Lancashire and Cheshire James Croston

The old, old earth is glad to turn from the cark and care of drifted centuries to the first sweet blades of green.
The Open Air Richard Jefferies

The nervous, excitable temper has helped the fret and cark of ambitious life.
The Caxtons, Complete Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Alpine tourists often employ this contrivance when they start from their bivouac in the cark morning.
The Art of Travel Francis Galton

noun, verb
an archaic word for worry (sense 1), worry (sense 2), worry (sense 11), worry (sense 13)
verb
(intransitive) (Austral, slang) to break down; die
v.

“to be weighed down or oppresssed by cares or worries, be concerned about,” early 12c., a figurative use, via Anglo-French from Old North French carkier “to load, burden,” from Late Latin carcare (see charge (v.)). Cf. Old North French carguer “charger,” corresponding to Old French chargier. The literal sense in English, “to load, put a burden on,” is from c.1300. Related: Carked; carking. Also as a noun in Middle English and after, “charge, responsibility; anxiety, worry; burden on the mind or spirit,” (c.1300), from Anglo-French karke, from Old North French form of Old French carche, variant of charge “load, burden, imposition.”