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
Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 9 July 2025
Firstly, designers are harking back to the past, introducing new iterations of footwear from bygone decades.
—Kelsey Stewart, Refinery29, 25 June 2025
The weight of the sound—incorporating five vocal soloists, thirty choristers, and thirty-three instrumentalists—harks back to lumbering mid-twentieth-century accounts by Otto Klemperer and Hermann Scherchen, before the original-instrument movement dictated light textures and fleet tempos.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 23 June 2025
The vibrant red and silver exterior, with a custom interior featuring dark leather seats and crimson accent piping, harks back to the King Air’s earlier days, while its modern cockpit includes digital pressurization, multi-scan weather radar, and Collins Aerospace’s Pro Line avionics.
—Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 12 June 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 19 Jul. 2025.
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