| 释义 |
▪ I. shark, n.1|ʃɑːk|
Also 6–7 sharke.
[Of obscure origin.
The word seems to have been introduced by the sailors of Captain (afterwards Sir John) Hawkins's expedition, who brought home a specimen which was exhibited in London in 1569. The source from which they obtained the word has not been ascertained. Cf. Ger. dial. (Austrian) schirk sturgeon: see shirk n.2
The conjecture of Skeat that the name of the fish is derived from shark v.1 is untenable; the earliest example of the vb. is c 1596, and the passage alludes to the fish.]
1. a. A selachian fish of the sub-order Squali of the order Plagiostomi; in popular language chiefly applied to the large voracious fishes of this suborder, as the genera Carcharodon, Carcharias, etc.
1569in B.L. Ballads & Broadsides (1867) 147 Ther is no proper name for it [a ‘marueilous straunge Fishe’] that I knowe, but that sertayne men of Captayne Haukinses doth call it a sharke. 1589Sparke Sir J. Hawkins' 2nd Voy. [landed home 1565] in Hakluyt Voy. 528 Many sharks or Tuberons..came about the ships. 1622R. Hawkins Observ. Voy. S. Sea xix. 43 The Sharke, or Tiberune, is a Fish like vnto those which wee call Dogge-fishes, but that he is farre greater. 1655Terry Voy. E. India 8 The Shark hath not this name for nothing, for he will make a morsell of any thing he can catch, master, and devour. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 79 We caught several great Sharks. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 240 The shark is the dread of sailors in all hot climates. 1814Scott Ld. of Isles iv. xi, So darts the dolphin from the shark. 1873Dawson Earth & Man vi. 158 Sharks, whose mouths are paved with flat teeth for crushing shells. 1879E. P. Wright Anim. Life 460 The True Sharks, or Carchariadæ, form a family most numerous in species, which are to be found in all seas. Ibid. 464 This shark [the Australian Saw Fish, Pristiophorus cirratus] is said to attain a length of about twelve feet. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 381 There is no dearth of shark and scar-fish.
b. With defining word, as angel-shark, the monk-fish, Squatina angelus; Gangetic shark, Carcharias gangeticus, inhabiting some rivers; Greenland shark, the North Atlantic shark Læmargus borealis; grey shark, the sand-shark Carcharinus americanus; hammer-headed shark, the Zygæna malleus; † long-tailed shark, the Fox-shark; sea-shark, a shark of the high seas, esp. ‘a large shark of the family Lamnidæ’ (Cent. Dict. 1891); spine shark, the Picked Dogfish, Acanthias; spinous shark, a shark of the genus Echinorhinus, as E. spinosus; white shark, a man-eating shark, Carcharodon rondeleti.
(See also basking ppl. a. 2, blue a. 12, cow n.1 8, fox n. 16 b, hound n.1 7 b, mackerel1 4, rock n.1 9 d, sand n.2 10 b, tiger n. 14, whale, etc.).
1655Terry Voy. E. India 8 This Sea-shark is a Fish as bad in eating as he is in quality. a1672Willughby Hist. Pisc. (1686) Tab. B. 8 The blew Sharke Galeus glaucus Rond. 1674Ray Coll. Words, Sea Fishes 98 White Sharks. 1752[see hammer-headed]. 1769Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 78 The Basking Shark... This species has been long known to the inhabitants of the south and west of Ireland. 1776Ibid. III. 86 Angel Shark. Ibid. 97 Long-tailed Shark. Ibid. 104 Beaumaris Shark. 1804Shaw Gen. Zool. V. 334 Spotted shark. Ibid. 339 Dusky shark. Ibid. 346 Grey shark. 1823Byron Island iv. ix, His..mates..Or deem'd him mad, or prey to the blue shark. 1828J. Fleming Brit. Anim. 166 Scymnus borealis. Greenland Shark. 1836Buckland Geol. & Min. (1837) I. 290 The common Dog-Fish, or Spine Shark (Spinax Acanthias, Cuv.). 1873T. Gill Catal. Fishes East N. Amer. 35 Reniceps tiburo...Shovel-head shark. 1879E. P. Wright Anim. Life 460 The Gangetic Shark (Carcharias gangeticus). Ibid. 464 The Spinous Shark (Echinorhinus spinosus) is a rare British fish. 1881Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 31 The Grey Shark is sometimes eleven or twelve feet long. 1886Günther in Encycl. Brit. XXI. 776/2 Hammerheaded Sharks (Zygæna) are sharks in which the anterior portion of the head is produced into a lobe on each side, the extremity of which is occupied by the eye.
c. transf. fresh-water shark, a jocular name for the pike, alluding to its voracity.
1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 267 The audacity and voraciousness of this fish [the pike] justly entitle him to the name which he has acquired of the fresh-water shark. 1902Daily Chron. 16 Dec. 8/4 Several fine pike have been captured lately, the heaviest..coming from a lake at Redhill, the ‘freshwater shark’ scaling 21lb. 2oz.
d. transf. Naut. slang. A sardine.
1916‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin viii. 144 There was a peculiar tang in the air... He found out afterwards that it emanated from various sardine-preserving factories, and the discovery put him off canteen ‘sharks’ for quite a week.
2. fig.
a. (Cf. shark n.2) Applied to persons, with allusion to the predatory habits and voracity of the shark; one who enriches himself by taking advantage of the necessities of others; a rapacious usurer, an extortionate landlord or letter of lodgings, etc., a financial swindler.
1713Guardian No. 73 The sharks, who prey upon the inadvertency of young heirs. 1804Naval Chron. XII. 249 The slopsellers, and other sharks, at this port. 1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 385 Our guide, a genuine shark, did his best to defraud his brethren, and thereby secure the entire fee. 1857Trollope Three Clerks I. iii. 58 He expected to pay {pstlg}200 a year for his board and lodging, which he thought might as well go to his niece as to some shark, who would probably starve him. 1886C. E. Pascoe Lond. To-day xix. (ed. 3) 187 Brighton is less plagued with ‘sharks’ than seaside resorts usually are. 1904Shuddick How to arrange with Creditors 35 The..simplest way of checking the rapacity of the money-lending shark. 1907H. Wyndham Flare of Footlights xxx, Even to his untrained eye several of them [i.e. theatrical advertisements] obviously emanated from sharks.
attrib.1904Shuddick How to arrange with Creditors 31 Another gentleman who is to be avoided at creditors' meetings is the shark accountant.
†b. spec. (See quots.) Obs.
1707J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 242 A meer Shark or Pick-pocket. 1788Grose Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 2) s.v. Shark, Sharks; the first order of pick-pockets. Bow-street term, a.d. 1785.
c. A customs officer; also pl. the press-gang.
1785Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Shark... Also a custom house officer, or tide waiter. 1796E. Hamilton Lett. Hindoo Rajah (1811) II. 52 The loss you had sustained from the sharks of the custom-house. 1828D. Jerrold Ambrose Gwinett i. iii, Gil. A word with you—the sharks are out to-night. Label. The sharks? Gil. Ay, the blue-jackets—the press-gang. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 384/1 They..look mysteriously around to see if there be any of ‘them ere Custom-house sharks afloat’. 1866‘Mark Twain’ Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 81 The professional ‘sharks’ in New Bedford and New London who furnish crews to ships.
d. Naut. A lawyer.
1806Port Folio 17 May 304/1, I got plenty of promises, Latin, and jaw, And who ever got more from a lawyer? Of the sport I got sick, so threw up the game, For my cash by the sharks had got eaten. 1840Marryat Poor Jack xxvii, I'm what the sailors call a shark, that is, I'm a lawyer.
e. U.S. College slang. A highly intelligent or able student. ? Obs.
1895W. C. Gore in Inlander Dec. 111 Shark,..a person who is very bright either in a general way or (more often) in some particular line of work. 1903Williams College Class Book 29 ‘Dido’ is a Math. shark of the first water. 1909Springfield (Mass.) Weekly Republ. 8 July 12 The ‘shark’ does well in his lessons, but recognizes that study is the first thing in college. ‘Sharks’ play games. 1920[see elocute v.].
3. Ent. Any moth of the genus Cucullia (formerly Noctua); there are several varieties as camomile, tansy, lettuce, mugwort shark.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 418 Noctua umbratica... The large Pale Shark. Ibid. 419 N. Tanaceti. The Tansy Shark. N. Lactucæ. The Lettuce Shark. N. Lucifuga. The large Dark Shark. 1869E. Newman Brit. Moths 436. 1890 Poulton Colours Anim. iv. 58 The appearance of splinters of wood is also often suggested by moths such as the ‘Sharks’ (Cucullia).
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. Obvious comb., as shark-bite, shark-fisher, shark genus, shark-hook, shark kind, shark(-liver) oil, shark-steak, shark trap; shark-fishing; shark-infested, shark-like, shark-mouthed, shark-proof adjs.
1888Daily News 25 Dec. 5/2 Death by *shark-bite.
1897‘Mark Twain’ Following Equator xiii. 142 He was passing by a nodding *shark-fisher.
1852Mundy Antipodes (1857) 89 *Shark-fishing is merely the best sport to be had in New South Wales. 1914Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 89/1 Shark-fishing is regarded as being as much a trade as a sport. 1976L. Deighton Twinkle, twinkle, Little Spy xi. 117 Is she interested in stud farms or shark fishing?
1822–29Good's Study Med. (ed. 3) V. 6 The squalus, or *shark genus.
1849Cupples Green Hand viii. (1856) 74, I hauled up the *shark-hook from astern.
1978Detroit Free Press 5 Mar. a 17/1 Rescue crews Saturday searched *shark-infested waters for the bodies of..crewmen killed in the crash of a..domestic airliner.
1758Borlase Nat. Hist. Cornw. 265 Of the *shark kind..we have the sea-fox, Vulpecula or Simia marina of authors.
1885W. T. Hornaday 2 Yrs in Jungle xxii. 257 A very strange..*shark-like fish.
1868Royle & Headland Mat. Med. (ed. 5) 745 note, *Shark-liver Oil has been lately imported into Liverpool.
1806J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life iv. i, Should you chance to have a wish for what is in the baskets or barrows of these *shark-mouthed bawlers.
1615R. Cocks Diary (Hakl. Soc.) I. 11 And we bought 40 gants of *shark oyle for the junk. 1888Brannt Anim. & Veg. Fats 310 Shark oil, prepared from the livers of various species of the shark.
1923‘R. Daly’ Enchanted Isl. x. 92 She had been bathing in the *shark-proof palisade below. 1967Coast to Coast 1965–66 162 Some evenings the Roebourne mob..would..swim in..our shark-proof pool beside the wharf.
1847H. Melville Omoo xiv. 65 A *shark-steak and be hanged to you! 1885A. Brassey The Trades 209 The pilot..telling me..what excellent things shark-steaks were.
1896A. J. Butler tr. Ratzel's Hist. Mankind I. 254 Fig., *Shark-trap with wooden float, from Fiji.
b. Special comb.: shark-bait, Austral. colloq., a lone or daring swimmer well out from shore; hence shark-baiter, -baiting; shark-barrow, ‘the egg-case of a shark; a sea-purse’ (Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895); shark-charmer, one professing to protect the pearl-divers in Sri Lanka from sharks by incantations; shark-fin, the fin of a shark, considered a table delicacy by the Chinese; shark's fin = shark-fin; also in shark's fin soup; shark's head nonce-word, a jocular name for the elongated prow of a grab; shark-headed a., the designation of a kind of screw, so shark-header, a screw of this kind; shark-louse, a parasitic crustacean infesting sharks; shark-moth = sense 3; shark's mouth Naut. (see quot.); also ‘the opening for the breeching in the cascabel of a cannon’ (Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895); shark net S. Afr. local, a length of netting positioned off-shore to protect bathers from sharks; also shark netting; shark-ray, the angel-fish, also a rhinobatid or beaked ray; sharkskin, (a) the skin of sharks used for making shagreen, and also used for polishing, etc.; also attrib.; (b) (i) a woven or warp-knitted fabric of wool, silk, or rayon with a smooth, slightly lustrous, finish; freq. attrib.; (ii) an outfit made of this fabric; shark-sucker, ‘any remora that adheres to sharks,’ esp. Echeneis naucrates; shark's tooth, shark-tooth, the tooth of a shark, also † = glossopetra; also attrib. quasi-adj. in similative use; also in shark's teeth sword, shark's teeth weapon, a weapon armed with shark's teeth, in use among some primitive peoples; shark-toothed a., applied to a tooth ornament suggesting shark's teeth.
1920A. H. Adams Australians 177 Farther out in the deep water swam the venturous line of experts, technically known as ‘*shark-bait’. 1937K. S. Prichard Intimate Stranger i. 16 ‘Shark-bait’, boys and girls on the beaches called her, she was so daring. Always swimming out there beyond the reef.
1924A. Wright Rung In iii. 31 It might be only some foolhardy ‘*shark baiter’, as he heard the more venturesome of the bathers termed. 1965Austral. Encycl. VIII. 82/2 Solitary bathers are more often attacked than groups, but the ‘shark-baiter’ farthest off shore is not necessarily the victim.
1951Cusack & James Come in Spinner 221 I've given up *shark-baiting. Mug's game. 1967K. S. Prichard Subtle Flame 99 I'm no good at shark baiting.
1866Cornh. Mag. XIV. 169 The *shark-charmer..is considered so indispensable to the fishery that he is paid by Government.
1793J. Trapp Rochon's Voy. Madagascar, etc. 390 The Chinese pay likewise a liberal price for *shark-fins.
1933Gourmet's Bk. Food & Drink iii. 49 In his own country the Chinaman's evening meal is a somewhat variegated affair..and includes..shark's fins, cucumber, fish brawn. c1938Fortnum & Mason Price List 58/1 Soups..Sharks' Fins per bot. 7/6. 1966Guardian 30 July 7/3 In the heart of Chinatown, shark's fin soup with crab sauce. 1978Nagel's Encycl.-Guide: China 379 Sharks' fins need lengthy preparation, because they are bought dried.
1831E. J. Trelawny Adv. Younger Son I. 178 Knock the *shark's head off her, and ship a bowsprit in its place.
1861Dickens Gt. Expect. xv, A gross or two of *shark-headed screws for general use.
Ibid., And *shark-headers is open to misrepresentations.
1850A. White List. Specim. Crustacea Brit. Mus. 122 Dinemoura alata. Winged *Shark-louse.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 250 Noctua Tanaceti (*shark moths).
1881L. R. Hamersly Naval Encycl., Awning, the *shark's mouth is an opening to accommodate the masts and stays abaft.
1970Studies in English (Univ. Cape Town) I. 33 These bracelets were originally made out of shark netting. The surfer would dig his way out to the *shark nets, cut himself a piece and tie it around his wrist. 1977J. McClure Sunday Hangman ix. 95 The shark nets protecting the bathers off its [sc. Durban's] beaches.
1836Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 408 The Angel-fish..is also called *Shark-Ray, from its partaking of the characters of both Shark and Ray. 1851Gosse Nat. Hist., Fishes 314 Rhinobatina. The Shark-rays. 1873T. Gill Catal. Fishes East N. Amer. 35 Squatina Dumerili... Angel-fish; shark-ray.
1851H. Melville Whale xv. I. 107 His account books bound in superior old *shark-skin. Ibid. III. xxvii. 174 With matted beard, and swathed in a bristling shark-skin apron..Perth was standing between his forge and anvil. 1877G. Macdonald Marquis of Lossie xlv, What the final touches of the shark-skin are to the marble..that only can [etc.]. 1932C. Beaton Diary Mar. in Wandering Years (1961) xiii. 255, I bought vast quantities, at almost negligible cost, of football vests, exotic footgear, the scantiest shorts in all colours and in white sharkskin. 1944R. Chandler Lady in Lake ii. 11 The man wore trunks and the woman what looked like a very daring white sharkskin bathing suit. 1957L. Durrell Justine iii. 183 Now in his ice-smooth shark⁓skin with the scarlet cummerbund he seemed..the richest and most handsome of the city's bankers. 1974D. Ramsay No Cause to Kill ii. 110 Ivy Eastbrook..in silk shirt and sharkskin trousers. 1979E. Koch Goodnight, Little Spy ii. 6 During the winter he wore..five serge suits and two sharkskins.
1850A. White List Specim. Crustacea Brit. Mus. 124 Anthosoma Smithii, Bud-like *Shark-Sucker.
1692Ray Disc. ii. iv. (1693) 162, I might have added *Sharks-teeth or Glossopetræ. 1845C. H. Smith in Kitto Cycl. Bibl. Lit. s.v. Arms Fig. 99 Sharks-teeth Sword. 1853Kingsley Westw. Ho! vi, Jagged shark's-tooth rock. 1885W. T. Hornaday 2 Yrs. in Jungle xxii. 257 They certainly are more like shark-teeth than spines. 1886Guide Exhib. Galleries Brit. Mus. 216 The singular armour made of cocoanut fibre, worn by the natives [of Micronesia] as a protection against the shark's teeth weapons.
1794T. Dwight Greenfield Hill 79 What stretches Avarice's gulphy maw, And opens wide her *shark-tooth'd jaw. 1860Thackeray Round. Papers, Lazy Idle Boy (1876) 3 The sacristan..espies the traveller eyeing..the old shark-toothed arch of his cathedral. 1935C. Day Lewis Time to Dance 42 Over the shark-toothed Timor sea Lost their bearings.
▸ slang. A lecherous person, esp. a man; a person actively seeking a sexual partner, esp. in a manner regarded as predatory. Cf. shark v.1
This sense seems to have arisen independently from the sense recorded in quot. 1957 sharkskin n. at Compounds 2, despite the similarity in meaning.
[1946M. Mezzrow & B. Wolfe Really the Blues Gloss. 378 Shark, man with a good line that women fall for.] 1981N.Y. Times Magazine 15 Feb. 26/5 On a typical Saturday night, at a cocktail party somewhere in the ivy-covered halls of Wellesley College, one often finds ambitious young Harvard men who describe themselves as being on ‘shark mode’. 1993Evening Standard 13 Oct. 11/3 Freshers guides tip you on the top pick-up joints..and warn of the so-called ‘sharks’, predatory second and third years who swim around first-week parties in search of freshers. 1995.net Feb. 51/1 A woman will join in a conference, say, and immediately attract the attentions of one or more ‘sharks’, who'll flirt, flirt some more, and then send a volley of u2ues (personal messages within the scope of the BBS or talker). 1999S. Stewart Sharking viii. 135 He was a notorious shark and his promiscuity rivalled even that of Dave Hardcore's.
▪ II. † shark, n.2 Obs.
Also sharke. Cf. shirk n.
[Of uncertain etymology.
It is noteworthy that shirk occurs with the same meaning frequently from 1639 down to the beginning of the 18th c., and that the G. schurke (now in wider sense, scoundrel, villain) had in the 16th c. precisely the same sense. Words with meanings of this character were c 1600 often adopted from Ger., and it is not unlikely that this word represents an adoption of G. schurke (earlier schurk, schorck), assimilated in form to shark n.1, of which it seems often to have been felt as a figurative use.]
A worthless and impecunious person who gains a precarious living by sponging on others, by executing disreputable commissions, cheating at play, and petty swindling; a parasite; a sharper. In later use influenced by shark n.1 2.
1599B. Jonson Ev. Man out of H. Charac., Shift. A Thredbare Sharke. One that neuer was Soldior, yet liues vpon lendings. His profession is skeldring and odling, his Banke Poules, and his Ware-house Pict-hatch. c1600Distr. Emperor i. i. in Bullen Old Pl. (1884) III. 166 To give attendance on the full-fedd gueste, Not on the hungry sharke. 1601B. Jonson Poetaster iii. iv. 200 Doe not we serue a notable sharke? 1609― Silent Wom. iv. iv, La-f. A very sharke, he set me i' the nicke t'other night at primero. 1628Earle Microcosm., Sharke (Arb.) 35 A Sharke. One whome all other meanes haue fayl'd, and hee now liues of himselfe. 1678South Serm. (1 Sam. xxv. 32, 33) (1697) II. 427 And thus David's Messengers are sent back to him, like so many Sharks, and Runnagates. 1684Wood Life 4 Sept. (O.H.S.) III. 108 Wright Croke..was posted up for a shark and coward in Day's coffey house. a1700Evelyn Diary 19 July 1664, The master of it [the lottery],..was, in truth, a meer shark.
b. Comb. shark-gull, ? one who is both knave and dupe.
1604T. M. Black Bk. C 4, Alas, poore Skark-Gull [sic], that put off is idle.
▪ III. † shark, n.3 Obs.
[f. shark v.1]
The action or an act of ‘sharking’. to live upon the shark: to live by sharking.
c1692South Serm. (1697) II. vi. 253 Wretches who live upon the Shark, and other men's Sins,..getting their very Bread by the Damnation of Souls.
▪ IV. shark, v.1|ʃɑːk|
Also 7 sharke; and see shirk v.
[Of uncertain origin.
It seems likely that two different words have been more or less confused from the time of the earliest examples; the one (which has the variants sherk(e, shirk(e: see shirk v.) f. shark n.2, and the other f. shark n.1 The senses naturally resulting from these derivations respectively are so nearly allied, and the use with mixed notions is so frequent, that the two verbs cannot be distinguished.
Skeat conjectured that this verb (which he regarded as the source, not the derivative, of the two ns.) was a north-eastern Fr. cherquier = F. chercher to seek, orig. to go about to find. He refers to the phrase ‘cercher le broust, to hunt after feasts, to play the parasite or smell-feast’ (Cotgr.), and to the similar It. ‘cercare del pane, to shift for how to live’ (Torriano). In view of the senses of this verb and those of shark n.2 (parasite, one who lives by shifts), the citation of these phrases gives striking plausibility to Skeat's hypothesis, which would also account for the divergent forms shark, sherk, shirk. But the sense in which the Fr. verb is assumed to have been adopted is merely contextual in the phrase quoted; further, the importation of the Fr. word in a dialectal form at the end of the 16th c. would be surprising, and if (which is unlikely) the adoption took place early the initial sound would normally be ch, not sh.]
1. intr.
†a. to shark on or shark upon: to prey like a shark upon; to victimize, sponge upon, swindle; to oppress by extortion. Obs.
c1596Sir T. More ii. iv. 106 For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,..Woold shark on you, and men lyke rauenous fishes Woold feed on on another. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. iv. 895 Then citizens were sharkt, and prey'd upon. a1652Brome New Acad. ii. i. (1658) 28 This woman..is vertuous And too discreet for him to shark upon. a1668Davenant Plots Wks. (1673) 304 Who sharkt on the People much more then the Crown.
b. To depend on or practise fraud or the arts of a ‘shark’, parasite, or sharper; to live by shifts and stratagems. Often to shark for (something).
1608Middleton Mad World v. i, I name it gently to you; I term it neither pilfer, cheat, nor shark. 1610B. Jonson Alch. i. i, 'Slid, proue to day, who shall sharke best. 1615J. Taylor (Water-P.) Revenge Wks. 1630 ii. 144/1 Couldst thou find no other way, To Sharke, or Shift, or Cony-catch for mony, But to make me thy Asse, thy Foole, thy Cony? 1616Capt. Smith Descr. New Eng. 33 Who would..by relating newes of others actions, sharke here or there for a dinner or supper? 1633Hart Diet of Diseased iii. xxiv. 326 Hee had not a morsell of bread..but what he begged, or else sharked for. 1635L. Foxe N.-W. Fox 107 He see him doe nothing but sharke up and downe. 1641Trapp Theol. Theol. 365 To shift and sharke in every bie-corner for comfort. c1672Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 167 Others that..had no money were forced to shark and live as opportunity served. Ibid. 179 To row hastily from it [the little devil], and leave it to shark for it self. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables ccxli. 210 It was Nature that taught This Boy to Shark. 1709Hearne Collect. 27 Sept. (O.H.S.) II. 269 He sneaks and sharks about at Bathe. 1765C. Johnston Chrysal (1783) IV. 124 It is only slipping a puffer or two of quality at them, enough of whom come sharking to every sale for that purpose only. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. vi. ii. (1820) 359 Those vagabond cosmopolites who shark about the world, as if they had no right or business in it. 1837Carlyle Diam. Neckl. Misc. Ess. 1888 V. 160 Thou must hawk and shark to and fro, from anteroom to anteroom.
2. trans.
a. to shark up: to collect hastily (a body of persons, etc.) without regard to selection. Now arch., as an echo of the Shakespeare passage.
1602Shakes. Ham. i. i. 98 Young Fortinbras,..Hath in the skirts of Norway, heere and there, Shark'd vp a List of Landlesse Resolutes. 1827Gifford Ford's Wks., 'Tis Pity ii. iii. note, What a detestable set of characters has Ford here sharked up for the exercise of his fine talents! 1900Edin. Rev. July 209 The hard fisted ruffian first of all sharks up the crew out of hospitals and gambling-dens.
b. To steal, pilfer, or obtain by underhand or cheating means. Usually const. from, out of, also with adv. away, out. Now arch.
1612T. Adams Heav. & Earth reconc. (1613) 6 If to digge they are too lazie,..to cheate want witte, and to liue, meanes, then thrust in for a roome in the Church; and once crope in at the window, make haste to sharke out a liuing. 1650Milton Eikon. i. (ed. 2) 15 Having sharkd them [sc. prayers] from the mouth of a Heathen worshipper. 1653Holcroft Procopius, Pers. Wars i. 30 John was irksome to all the world,..sharking all kind of booty. 1665Wood Life (O.H.S.) II. 49 He..pretended to joke and play the rogue; and at length shark away a cloak, coat, or something else, when mass was done. 1896A. Dobson 18th Cent. Vignettes Ser. iii. viii. 166 His classical quotations were not..sharked out of Burton's ‘Anatomy’.
†c. To swindle (a person). Obs. rare—1.
a1650May Old Couple v. (1658) 42 But think not..that I sharke, Or cheat him in it.
3. dial. (See quot.). Cf. shirk v.
1828–32Webster, s.v., To shark out, to slip out or escape by low artifices (Vulgar). 1844W. Barnes Poems Rur. Life Gloss., Shark or Shurk off, to sneak off softly from shame or an apprehension of danger.
▸ intr. Brit. slang. Chiefly of a man: to be in active pursuit of a sexual partner, esp. at a social gathering and in a manner regarded as predatory. Usu. in pres. pple.
1992Daily Tel. 6 May 15/8, I do know one person who is sharking for Britain..but on the whole there is very little sex and no drugs. 1995Unique June 21/1 There were also steaming groups of 20-year old blokes..sharking for talent. 1998Scotl. on Sunday (Electronic ed.) 10 May Apart from sharking around clubs, pubs and launderettes how else do you meet your soulmates?
▪ V. † shark, v.2 Obs. rare.
[Perh. f. shark n.1; less probably, an extended form of share v.1, shear v. (cf. lur-k, tal-k).]
trans. To cut or tear.
1611Cotgr., Coigniaux, a kind of small, and bright-greene vermine, which sharke off, and cut in peeces, the tendrels and grapes, of Vines. 1614Gorges Lucan vii. 303 Neither could they [the birds] so sharke and share The flesh, whereby the bones were bare.
▪ VI. shark, v.3
[f. shark n.1]
intr. To fish for sharks (Cent. Dict. 1891). Only as ˈsharking vbl. n.2 [formed after fishing, etc.], shark-fishing; also attrib.
1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), Sharking, fishing for sharks. A favorite sport in the waters of Narragansett Bay. 1881A. J. Northrup 'Sconset Cottage Life xi. 100 No summer experience at 'Sconset is complete without..one ‘sharking’ expedition. 1882E. K. Godfrey Island of Nantucket 329 A visit can be made to the ‘sharking grounds’. 1937J. W. Day Sporting Adventure 219 The Isle of Arran, off the Scottish coast, is the centre from which the new sport is being followed. A fishing-smack has been fitted out specially there for parties who wish to go out ‘sharking’. 1960Sunday Express 24 July 13/5 Good sharking! |