Bark

Bark is the skin of a plant or tree, a cry of certain animals, or a boat or ship.

It is the tough and protective outer sheath of the trunk, braches, twigs, and roots. It is a tissue of a stem and root outside the cambium layer in older trees usually divisible into inner (living) and outer (dead) bark. The bark of a tree has many uses, such as for tanning leather, making dyestuffs, a mulch in gardening, extracting colours, or even making medicines.

As a cry of animals, such as of a dog, fox, or seal, it is their sharp explosive cry, or a sound resembling it, typically made by someone while coughing or laughing.

Bark denotes a boat or ship in literature, though such a use is now considered archaic. The sailing ship, typically with three masts, is also called bark. The foremost and the main mast are square-rigged while the mizzenmast is rigged fore-an-aft in such a ship.