What it means
To hawk something is to walk about trying to sell it straight to whoever’s passing, usually on the street or door to door. It’s got a slightly pushy feel to it, the kind of selling that turns up in your face before you’ve even said you want it.
Usage examples
"Street sellers were hawking roasted chestnuts on every corner."
"Blokes were hawking fake watches to tourists all along the seafront."
"Down on the Brighton seafront blokes were hawking glow sticks and inflatable sharks to the Saturday crowd, and the kids stopped at every single stall pulling their mums by the sleeve."
"She started hawking homemade jam at the village fete last summer and now ships nationwide on Etsy, sells out by Friday lunchtime and bakes through every weekend."
"He spent all afternoon outside the station hawking dodgy phone chargers for a tenner."
Where it comes from
In the selling sense, hawk has been around in English since the Middle English period. It’s tied to older use around peddling goods by going from place to place. Hawker came along as the noun for those roaming sellers calling out what they had, a word that’s been knocking about for centuries.
