verb
with object, and adverbial1mainly Scottish Dig out or up.
‘deep in their trenches the men stood, howking out the brown earth’- ‘Sorry can't comment at the moment I'm too busy trying to howk an amazingly stubborn bogey from my scrunched up beak.’
- 1.1no object, with adverbial Search about by digging or rummaging.‘Frankie howked among the beer cans’
- ‘‘Treat this book like a treasure map that tells ye whaur tae howk’, states the introduction.’
Origin
Late Middle English holk related to Middle Low German holken ‘to hollow’, and hole.
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