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distressful.
care or worry.
to worry.
Historical Examples

Memory worked with it—the carking memory of a failure of courage.
Double Harness Anthony Hope

He was sensible of a dull, carking shame, and yet was shameless.
The Destroying Angel Louis Joseph Vance

In truth, it was so; heavy with the weariness caused by carking care.
Verner’s Pride Mrs. Henry Wood

Doubt—indefinite, carking doubt had taken possession of her.
Desperate Remedies Thomas Hardy

I reckon you are now preparing for your Wexford expedition; and poor Dingley is full of carking and caring, scolding.
The Journal to Stella Jonathan Swift

To stroll from one’s hotel to the famous promenade on a bright morning is to snap one’s fingers at carking care.
In Vanity Fair Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd

And again Kirkwood sought Stryker, his carking query ready on his lips.
The Black Bag Louis Joseph Vance

He had never dared to voice the carking fear that tightened about his heart at times.
Carmen Ariza Charles Francis Stocking

We meet only an embarrassment of choice when we start to unstring the chaplet of our carking cares.
The Simple Life Charles Wagner

A carking connoisseur is abusing some effort of an unhappy artist to portray nature.
Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 2/2 James Payn

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.”