Interesting. I have always only heard "hawk" used in the context of "in-your-face" selling of merchandise of a bulk nature, generally of an inexpensive or low-grade type.

I.e., people hawking popcorn and hotdogs at a sports event. SE Asian street merchants hawking bootleg CDs. People hawking trinkets door to door.

For me this is the first time I have encountered this term being used for selling one single item, of non-trivial cost, person-to-person, non-professionally (i.e., not as a salesman).


E.g., I would never say, "I'm going to hawk this old sports jacket I don't need any more" or "I sure need to hawk that old fridge we have in the garage."

But I would say, "Maybe we should hawk brownies to raise money for a local charity."(*)

or

"I'm going to have to hock my guitar until my next paycheck comes in."

But, from what Rob says, it sounds like people in Bristol may use "hawk" in a far broader context.

But to me, "hawk" is one step above "shill" and maybe a slight step below "peddle" but certainly bearing sleazier connotations than the simple "sell."

So, I would "sell my iPod" or "chunk my iPod" or "blow chunks on my iPod" or "hock my iPod" or "hawk up on my iPod" but never ever "hawk my iPod." Then again, that's just me.

(*) Of course, given the "hawk up" usage I mentioned before, it might be best to avoid using this word in the same sentence with "brownies."