bark2

noun

• the tough protective outer sheath of the trunk, branches, and twigs of a tree or woody shrub: beavers feed on leaves and the living bark of trees
• bark used for tanning leather, making dyestuffs, or as a mulch in gardening:top-dress lime-hating shrubs with bark

verb

• 1chiefly British strip the bark from (a tree or piece of wood): they had to be barked by hand, you couldn’t peel them the way you can newly cut wood
• scrape the skin off (one’s shin) by accidentally hitting it against something hard: it’s pitch black—I barked my shin and took a tumble in a nettle bed

• 2 technical tan or dye (leather or other materials) using the tannins found in bark.