Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to flagellate.

1744

Machine 11: Selfish Letcher that does Jesuit box, / Or Huffling, Gigging, Semigigging, Larking, / Or that queer Practice, by the Cull call’d Barking.

2. to hurt by breaking the skin.

1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 16 Jan. 3/2: Thomas King [...] charged by Miss Charlotte Hayes, a young lady of somewhat unenviable notoriety, with ‘barking’ the bridge of her nose with a billet of wood.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It 39: Every time it came it damaged somebody. One trip it ‘barked’ the Secretary’s elbow.
1884		Harper’s Mag. Jan. 305/2: A barked shin [F&H].
1894		Truth (Sydney) 9 Dec. 3/5: Mrs Sass saluted his presence [...] with a box on the ears , which caused the lad to fall and ‘bark’ his nose.
1913		H. Kephart Our Southern Highlanders (1922) 102: I wish t’ my legs growed hind-side-fust [...] So ’s ’t wouldn’t bark my shins!
1936		D. Stivens Tramp and Other Stories 51: He had barked the back of his right hand when he had fallen. Little spots of blood had oozed out.
1945		J.T. Adams Mountain Murder 32: Keep your hands shoulder high, or I’ll bark your scalp with a piece of lead.
1976		E. Thompson Caldo Largo (1980) 162: She’s barking the skin off me!