yerk

From Middle English ȝerken (“to move suddenly, excite, bind tightly, attack”), from Old English ġearcian (“to prepare, make ready”), compare ġearc (“active, quick”), from Proto-Germanic *garwakōną (“to prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to grab, take”). Cognate with jerk; see yare for more cognates.

yerk (third-person singular simple present yerks, present participle yerking, simple past and past participle yerked)

1. (archaic) to stab.
   • circa 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice:

     I lack iniquity / Sometimes to do me service: nine or ten times / I had thought to have yerk’d him here, under the ribs.

2. To throw or thrust with a sudden, smart movement; to kick or strike suddenly; to jerk.
   • Drayton

     They flirt, they yerk, they backward […] fling.

   • Shakespeare

     Their wounded steeds […] / Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters.

3. (obsolete, Scotland) To strike or lash with a whip or stick.
4. (obsolete, Scotland) To rouse or excite.
5. To bind or tie with a jerk.

yerk (plural yerks)

1. (archaic) A sudden or quick thrust or motion; a jerk.

• Krey, Kyer