embark
/ɪmˈbɑːk
/ /ɛmˈbɑːk/verb [no object]
1Go on board a ship or aircraft: he embarked for India in 1817...
- The commuters' nightmare began at York station on Wednesday when Leeds-bound passengers embarked for the 12.46 pm train - and soon discovered they were going nowhere.
- The Lodge Act enlistees were slowly gathering, and in November, when our number reached 50, we embarked for the U.S. by ship.
- Debka File has a fascinating update on the Palermo Senator, the threat of nuclear terrorism, and the phantom Al Qaeda group that embarked for the U.S., but apparently has disappeared without a trace.
Synonyms
board ship, go on board, go aboard, climb aboard, step aboard, take ship;
take off
informal hop on, jump on
1.1 [with object] Put or take on board a ship or aircraft: the passengers were ready to be embarked...
- As soon as the ship started to float again we re-embarked and with night starting to fall we moored alongside a ship ready to embark lorries to be landed in the early hours of the next day.
- This period will cover Exercise Allied Action 05, for which Admiral Cooke and SFN Staff will be embarked in the command ship USS Mount Whitney off the Mediterranean coast of Spain.
- While 820 Squadron was embarked the ship spent more than 1,000 hours at flying stations, achieved 1,100 deck landings and transferred over 2,000 loads by air.
2 (embark on/upon) Begin (a course of action): she embarked on a new career...
- Might he not, on reflection, have regretted embarking on this particular course?
- Professional advice should always be sought before embarking on a particular course of action.
- For example, states realize that they cannot achieve their goals in areas such as trade or environment, unless all other states also embark upon a particular course of action.
Synonyms
begin, start, commence, undertake, set about, enter on, go into, take up;
venture into, launch into, plunge into, turn one's hand to, engage in, settle down to;
institute, initiate, tackle
informal have a go/crack/shot at
Derivatives
embarkation
/ noun ...- As embarkations continue to grow, the city is considering a plan to construct a new passenger terminal at an estimated cost of $35 million.
- Increasingly, though, cruise lines are taking on the responsibility of providing a pleasant shoreside environment for embarkation, and in many cases are creating their own purpose-built terminals.
- Written shortly after she saw the troops march through Sydney prior to their embarkation for the Middle East, the poem recalls the young men who used to visit her for afternoon tea in her flat in King's Cross.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from French embarquer, from em- 'in' + barque 'bark, ship'.
bark from Old English:
Dogs have always barked, so it is not surprising that bark is a prehistoric word. If someone's bark is worse than their bite they are not as ferocious as they appear. To bark at the moon meaning ‘to make a fuss with no effect’, is first recorded in the 17th century. To bark up the wrong tree is from 19th-century America. People have been barking or barking mad since the 1930s. The bark of a tree is possibly related to the name of the birch tree (Old English). Bark or barque (Middle English) is also an old-fashioned word for a boat from Latin barca ‘ship's boat’, from which we get embark (mid 16th century).