adj
Meaning 1
Smart; trim; spruce; jaunty; vain.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
perk
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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General-American: /pɝk/
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Received-Pronunciation: /pɜːk/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)k
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CMU ARPABET: P ER1 K Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
Perquisite.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
Examples
- Free coffee is one of the perks of the job.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A bonus ability that a player character can acquire; a permanent power-up.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: video-games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A percolator, particularly of coffee.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
To make (coffee) in a percolator or a drip coffeemaker.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal, transitive
Examples
- I’ll perk some coffee.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
Of coffee: to be produced by heated water seeping (“percolating”) through coffee grounds.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal, intransitive
Examples
- The coffee is perking.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To make trim or smart; to straighten up; to erect; to make a jaunty or saucy display of.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 8
To appear from below or behind something, emerge, pop up, poke out.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Examples
- 1842, Robert Browning, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” in Lyrics of Life, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866, pp. 35-36, lines 152-153, [...] suddenly up the face Of the Piper perked in the market-place,
- 1937 Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 4, “Kavar,” p. 159, A strong warm wind carried a sound of chopping with it and a rustle of dead plane-leaves; through those leaves perked the green crooks of young ferns.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 9
To exalt oneself; to bear oneself loftily.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive, obsolete
Examples
- 1574, Arthur Golding (translator), Sermons of Master John Calvin, upon the Booke of Job, London: Lucas Harison and George Byshop, Sermon 38, The first upon the tenth Chapter, For whereof commeth thys hypocrisie in the popedome, that men shall preache free will, merits, and satisfactions, and set vp their bristles in suche wise, and beare themselues in hande that they may come perking before God, yea and preace thither lyke shamelesse strumpets.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 10
To peer; to look narrowly, sharply, or inquisitively.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 11
To examine thoroughly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 12
To perch.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 13
an incidental benefit awarded for certain types of employment (especially if it is regarded as a right)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- a limousine is one of the fringe benefits of the job
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: fringe benefit, perquisite
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: benefit
Narrower terms: appanage, apanage, gratuity, tip, pourboire, baksheesh, bakshish, bakshis, backsheesh
verb
Meaning 14
gain or regain energy
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- I picked up after a nap
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: perk up, percolate, pick up, gain vigor
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: recuperate, recover, convalesce
History
Etymology
Origin uncertain. Perhaps a metathesis of prick.
Clipping of perquisite.
Clipping of percolate (verb) and percolator (noun).
The origin is uncertain. Perhaps a variant of peer + -k (frequentative ending).
From Middle English perken, from Old Northern French perquer.
Across languages
Translations
33 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Catalan: benefici — perquisite
- Chinese Mandarin: 津贴 (jīntiē) — perquisite
- Estonian: eelis — perquisite
- Finnish: etu — perquisite
- French: avantage — perquisite
- German: Vorteil — perquisite
- German: Privileg — perquisite
- German: Vergünstigung — perquisite
- German: Extra — perquisite
- German: Dreingabe — perquisite
- Hungarian: juttatás — perquisite
- Hungarian: előny — perquisite
- Hungarian: kiváltság — perquisite
- Hungarian: mellékes — perquisite
- Hungarian: cafeteria — perquisite
- Italian: privilegio — perquisite
- Macedonian: пре́дност (prédnost) — perquisite
- Macedonian: привиле́гија (privilégija) — perquisite
- Polish: dodatkowa korzyść — perquisite
- Polish: bonus — perquisite
- Portuguese: bônus — perquisite
- Portuguese: privilégio — perquisite
- Russian: привилегия (privilegija) — perquisite
- Russian: льгота (lʹgota) — perquisite
- Russian: преимущество (preimuščestvo) — perquisite
- Slovene: boniteta — perquisite
- Spanish: ventaja — perquisite
- Spanish: prebenda — perquisite
- Spanish: gaje — perquisite
- Spanish: emolumento — perquisite
- Spanish: gratificación — perquisite
- Spanish: obvención — perquisite
- Swedish: förmån — perquisite