embark

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈbɑːk/, /ɛmˈbɑːk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈbɑɹk/, /ɛmˈbɑɹk/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)k
• Hyphenation: em‧bark

Borrowed from Middle French embarquer, from em- + barque (“small ship”). Compare with Portuguese embarcar, Spanish abarcar.

embark (third-person singular simple present embarks, present participle embarking, simple past and past participle embarked)

1. To go aboard a craft or vessel for transportation.

   All passengers please embark now.

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 58:

     [S]ee them embarqued; / And tell me if the VVinds and Seas befriend them.

   • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:

     It is never possible to settle down to the ordinary routine of life at sea until the screw begins to revolve. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.

2. To start, begin.

   Phil embarked on his journey yesterday.

   • 1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:

     "This is uncommonly nice of you, Nora," he said, before she had had the chance to embark on any explanation; […]

3. (transitive) To cause to go on board a vessel or boat; to put on shipboard.
4. (transitive) To engage, enlist, or invest (as persons, money, etc.) in any affair.

   He embarked his fortune in trade.

   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     It was the reputation of the sect upon which St. Paul embarked his salvation.

   • 1641, Ben Jonson, Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter‎^[1]:

     Nor seek to get his patron's favour, by embarking himself in the factions of the family; to enquire after domestic simulties, their sports or affections.

• (a vessel or craft): board
• (on a boat or ship): make sail, take shipping (archaic)

• disembark

From em- + bark.

embark (third-person singular simple present embarks, present participle embarking, simple past and past participle embarked)

1. (transitive) To cover or enclose with bark. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

• Markeb, bemark