yerk
To stab (someone or something).
“To doe no contriu'd mur[t]her; I lacke iniquity / Sometimes to do me ſeruice: nine or ten times, / I had thought to haue ierk'd him here, / Vnder the ribbes.”
To throw or thrust with a sudden, smart movement; to kick or strike suddenly; to jerk.
“Their wounded steeds […] / Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters.”
“Vp on a ſuddaine they together ſtart, / And driue at him as faſt as they could ding, / They flirt, they yerke, they backvvard fluce, and fling / As though the Deuill in their heeles had bin, / That to eſcape the danger he vvas in.”
To strike or lash with a whip or stick.
To rouse or excite.
To bind or tie with a jerk.
Thesaurus
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.
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