Definition of "hearken"

Thenceforth ſhe paſt into his dreadfull den, / VVhere nought but darkeſome drerineſſe ſhe found, / Ne creature ſaw, but hearkned now and then / Some little whiſpering, and ſoft groaning ſound.

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, stanza 33, page 103

This King of Naples being an Enemy / To me inueterate, hearkens my Brothers ſuit, / Which was, That he in lieu o' th' premiſes, / Of homage, and I know not how much Tribute, / Should preſently extirpate me and mine / Out of the Dukedome, and confer faire Milane / With all the Honors, on my brother: […]

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii], page 3, column 1

With pleaſure he hearkens the heart-ſoothing chear / Shakes Morpheus and ſlumber away; / While joyful he ſtarts, and with ſpeed doth appear / The foremoſt to welcome the day.

1785, “Hunting Songs and Cantatas”, in The Humming Bird: Or, A Compleat Collection of the Most Esteemed Songs. […], 3rd edition, Canterbury, Kent: Printed and sold by Simmons and Kirkby; London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], number 50, page 17, column 2

Tho' I cannot speak a word, I shall hearken what ye say, / And be often—often with ye when ye think I'm faraway.

1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “New Year’s Eve”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], stanza X, page 99

And now a sweet bird calls its scattered mates, / And gaily hearkens the unburdened heart.

1869 December 18, “A Storm”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, number 312 (Fourth Series), London, Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, page 816, column 2

Up in the spire / The watcher set high o'er the half-hid town / Hearkens the sound of chiming bells fall down / Below him: […]

1870, William Morris, “January”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part IV, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], page 88

Who ſo hearkeneth vnto me, ſhal not come to confuſion, & they that worke by me, ſhal not offende; [they that make me to be knowen, ſhal haue euerlaſting life.]

1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. […] (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: […] Rouland Hall, Ecclesiasticus XXIIII:25, folio 433, verso

She hearkens for his hounds and for his horn: / Anon she hears them chant it lustily, / And all in haste she coasteth to the cry.The spelling has been modernized.

1593, 1896, verse 145, page 51, lines 868–870

And vnto Adam he [God] ſaid, Becauſe thou hast hearkened vnto the voice of thy wife [Eve], and haſt eaten of the tree, of which I commaunded thee, ſaying, Thou ſhalt not eate of it: curſed is the ground for thy ſake: in ſorow ſhalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Genesis 3:17, column 1

Nowe therefore hearken, O Iſrael, vnto the Statutes, and vnto the Judgments which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may liue, and goe in and poſſeſſe the lande, which the Lord God of your fathers giueth you.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Deuteronomy 4:1, column 1

Ev'n from the depths of Hell the Damn'd advance, / Th' Infernal Manſions nodding ſeem to dance; / The gaping three-mouth'd Dog forgets to ſnarl, / The Furies harken, and their Snakes uncurl.

1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], page 143, lines 690–693

When ſhe [voluptuousness] ſpreadeth her delicacies on the table, when her wine ſparkleth in the cup, when ſhe ſmileth upon thee, and perſuadeth thee to be joyful and happy; then is the hour of danger, and let reaſon ſtand firmly on her guard: for, if thou hearkeneſt unto the words of her adverſary, thou art deceived and betrayed.

1750 November, “Maxims for the Conduct of Life”, in The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure: […], volume VII, number XLVIII, London: Published […] by John Hinton, […], page 224, column 1

If the advice of an old man is, then, worth hearkening to, children, you will quickly, go different ways to your places of shelter and safety.

1827, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter III, in The Prairie; a Tale. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey, Lea & Carey […], page 48

O mother Ida, manyfountained Ida, / Dear mother Ida, hearken ere I die.

1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “Œnone”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], stanza II, page 52

How, then, am I mad? Harken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

1843 January, Edgar A[llan] Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, in J[ames] Russell Lowell, R[obert] Carter, editors, The Pioneer. A Literary and Critical Magazine, volume I, number I, Boston, Mass.: Leland and Whiting, […], page 29, column 1

Thou who art of all things Lord, / Well I know, in Galilee, / Hearkenedst to Thy mother's word, / Teach me such a child to be.

1844, [Helen Taylor], “Monday”, in The Child’s Book of Homilies. […], London: Edwards and Hughes, […]; Hatchard and Son, […], part II (Homilies for the Week), page 70

We were not many minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of each other and hearken. But there was no unusual sound—nothing but the low wash of the ripple and the croaking of the inmates of the wood.

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Sea Chest”, in Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, part I (The Old Buccaneer), page 29

[T]he mother who had shaped him if any had toward the man he almost was, […] whom he had revered and harkened to and loved and lost and grieved: […]

1942, William Faulkner, “The Bear”, in Go Down, Moses, New York, N.Y.: Random House, section 5, page 326

You do not, in short, speak in order to encourage others to speak freely but in order to discourage others from disseminating or hearkening to error. You do not seek to enfranchise the community but to bind it to the truths you take to be salutary.

1999, Stanley Fish, “Fraught with Death”, in The Trouble with Principle, Cambridge, Mass., London: Harvard University Press, page 93

Claudio. Hearken after their offence my Lord. / Prince. Officers, what offence haue theſe men done?

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, [Act V, scene ii]