Howks

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Digs or scrapes something out of the earth, especially in a rough or energetic way, as in northern English and Scots dialect
2. Excavates or tears out material from the ground by digging with the hands or a tool
3. Scrapes away soil to extract or uncover something buried, a term used mainly in dialect speech of northern Britain

Etymology: "Howks" is the third-person singular present form of "howk", a Scots and northern English verb meaning to dig or to scoop out. The verb itself carries the sense of grubbing or hollowing something out with the hands or a tool, the kind of digging a gardener or a digger might do. Because "howks" is only the inflected form, its history is that of the verb it comes from, and the verb is the word to trace. Its origins are not something this brief can settle with confidence, so the more useful thing to know is how it is used: it sits comfortably in dialect and older Scots writing, where it means digging out something buried or extracting something from the ground.