hark back
verb
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Hark Back Got Its Start in Hunting
Hark, a very old word meaning "to listen," was used as a cry in hunting. The master of the hunt might cry "Hark! Forward!" or "Hark! Back!" The cries became set phrases, both as nouns and verbs. Thus, a "hark back" was a retracing of a route by dogs and hunters, and to "hark back" was to turn back along the path. From its use in hunting, the verb soon acquired its current figurative meanings. The variants hearken and harken (also very old words meaning “to listen”) are also used, with and without back, as synonyms of hark back.
Examples of hark back in a Sentence
Kathleen Turner, Forbes.com, 21 Apr. 2025
Leshem told us in 2023 that Bad Boy harks back to his time as an investigative journalist when he was assigned to a story in a juvenile prison.
—Max Goldbart, Deadline, 3 Apr. 2025
Defying student protests, legislators moved to allocate more civilian posts for military officers, a move that harked back to the nation’s authoritarian past.
—Natasha Frost, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2025
Its proponents reject the full spectrum of European and American liberal thought, from left to right, and hark back to a West defined by their reading of Christianity and traditional values.
—Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hark back
Cite this Entry
“Hark back.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hark%20back. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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