Definition of "hark back" []

• Of hounds, to retrace a course in order to pick up a lost scent. (verb)
• To return or revert (to a subject etc.), to allude to, to evoke, to long or pine for (a past event or era). (verb)

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• "This was a hark back to the ancient Egyptian ideal of a number of hermits living in a "laura" or collection of detached cells which were situated some considerable distance apart (see CAMALDOLESE)."