mudlarkn.
/ˈmʌdlɑːk/, U.S. /ˈmədˌlɑrk/ 1. slang. A hog; pork. Now rare.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > pig > [noun] > male > castrated or hog
barrowc950
hogOE
swine hog1381
barrow-pig1547
stag1784
mudlark1785
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Mud lark, a hog.
1801 T. Campbell Mobiade in W. Beattie Life & Lett. T. Campbell (1849) I. 380 Or fry the mud-lark's odoriferous wing... The poetical name for a pig, principally used in..Kilmainham jail.
1833 J. Neal Down-easters i. 47 I should like to know..what upon irth he means by..mud-larks that's made into Virginny-ham.
1869 Overland Monthly Aug. 129/2 A hog clandestinely killed outside of camp and smuggled in..was called a ‘slow bear’... ‘Mud-lark’ signified the same thing.
1923 Dial. Notes 5 240 Boiled potatoes an' mud lark.
2. colloquial.
a. A person who scavenges for usable debris in the tidal mud of a river, harbour, etc. Also: someone who scavenges for such debris in a sewer; (in extended use) a beggar who operates near a river (rare); a person who cleans out or clears a sewer (rare). Now chiefly historical.
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the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > [noun] > from vessels on water
mudlark1796
water-sneak1807
society > travel > travel by water > one who travels by water or sea > associated shore-based personnel > [noun] > one who scavenges around boats
mudlark1796
mudlarker1818
1796 P. Colquhoun Police of Metropolis iii. 60 Men and boys, known by the name of Mud-larks, who prowl about, and watch under the ships when the tide will permit.
1796 P. Colquhoun Police of Metropolis iii. 61 Gentlemen plunderers..are far more pernicious than the lumpers or mud-larks.
1801 Monthly Rev. 35 243 Miserable beings..accustomed to grub in the river at low water for old ropes..known by the appellation of Mud-larks.
1804 M. Edgeworth Lame Jervas xi, in Pop. Tales I. 77 He..became what is called a mud-lark; that is a plunderer of the ships cargoes that unload in the Thames.
1845 Chambers's Edinb. Jrnl. 15 Feb. 105/1 These ‘mud-larks’..bear generally a bad character... Their functions do not end with the shore, but in the sewer.
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour II. 155/2 The mud-larks collect whatever they happen to find, such as coals, bits of old-iron, [etc.].
1859 C. Hotten Dict. Mod. Slang 65 Mud-larks,..occasionally those men who cleanse the sewers, with great boots and sou'wester hats.
1892 A. Dobson 18th Cent. Vignettes 233 The same crowd of mud-larks and loafers would come rushing into the water to offer..their services.
1959 Times 16 Mar. (Port of London Suppl.) p. xvi/1 ‘Long apron men’ and mudlarks who..waited to pick up goods thrown to them by accomplices on board merchantmen.
1985 Antiquaries Jrnl. June 450 It was found by an experienced mudlark, licensed by the Port of London Authority to dig and search the foreshore at that point.
1994 T. Clark Junkets on Sad Planet viii. 137 Coal-heavers, or even those Mudlarks who comb the City sewers for any scrap of stuff they can find to sell.
1995 Independent on Sunday 19 Feb. (Review Suppl.) 71/3 The public is allowed to beachcomb on the shores, but serious mudlarks..must obtain a license (£9 per annum) from the PLA and abide by its rules.
b. A street urchin; a child who plays in mud. Also (in extended use): any dirty or untidy person.
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society > society and the community > social class > the common people > low rank or condition > other people of low rank or condition > [noun] > street people > children > street-child
blackguard1699
street girl1764
street boy1796
mudlark1814
street urchin1827
gamin1832
street child1839
Arab1847
street Arab1853
muckworm1859
scuttler1867
gutter-snipec1869
gutter-child1870
gavroche1876
gutter-snippet1891
voyoua1896
street kid1910
dead-end kid1928
gurrier1936
1814 S. T. Coleridge Let. 12 Sept. (1959) III. 532 I..shall therefore send forth my two She-bears to tear in pieces the most obnoxious of these ragged children in intellect, and to scare the rest of these mischievous little Mud-larks back to their crevice-nests & lurking Holes.
1829 P. Egan Boxiana New Ser. II. 426 The entire group, owing to the wretched state of the road, were nothing but mudlarks!
1865 Sat. Rev. 5 July 4 It is Lord Palmerston's misfortune..to number three or four of these incurable mudlarks among his official offspring.
1886 R. C. Leslie Sea-painter's Log 26 Such a boy looks down upon mudlarks very much, calling them nippers and other scornful names.
1944 M. Lowry Let. Sept. (1995) I. 462 Thanks a million for everything: sorry, I was probably a loathsome guest, a sloth or mud lark might have been better.
1989 ‘C. Roman’ Foreplay iv. 44 Skinny-dipping is a midnight sport for mudlarks and water babies.
1995 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 22 June 48/4 The filthier the work—and hence the clothes—of colliery girls or mudlarks the more he doted on them.
c. Chiefly in plural. (A nickname for) a soldier of the Royal Engineers.
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society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier of specific force or unit > [noun]
spahi1562
legionnaire1595
strelitz1603
Croat1623
deli1667
Croatian1700
lancer1712
highlander1725
lambs1744
royals1762
light-bob1778
fly-slicer1785
Life Guardsman1785
royals?1795
Hottentot1796
yeoman1798
pandour1800
Faugh-a-Ballaghsc1811
forty-two man1816
kilty1842
Zouave1848
bumblerc1850
Inniskilliner1853
blue cap1857
turco1860
Zou-Zou1860
mudlark1878
king's man1883
Johnny1888
Piffer1892
evzone1897
horse gunner1897
dink1906
army ranger1910
grognard1912
Jock1914
chocolate soldier1915
Cook's tourist1915
dinkum1916
Anzaca1918
choc1917
ranger1942
Chindit1943
Desert Rat1944
Green Beret1949
1878 R. Trimen Regiments Brit. Army 42 Royal Engineers..nicknamed ‘the Mudlarks’.
2002 shop.store.yahoo.com 8 Aug. (O.E.D. Archive) Corps of Royal Engineers. Formed 1717 a part of the military branch of Board of Ordinance, Regimental Depot, Chatham; nicknamed ‘The Mudlarks’.
3.
a. British regional. Any of various birds that frequent muddy places or use mud in their nest-building; esp. (a) the rock pipit, Anthus petrosus; (b) the Eurasian skylark, Alauda arvensis.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > non-arboreal (larks, etc.) > [noun] > family Motacillidae > genus Anthus > other types
Richard's pipit1830
mudlark1840
1840 J. H. Frere Birds 64 The Sand-Martins, And Mud Larks, too, were busy in their department, Mixing the mortar.
1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 317/1 The Mud-Lark, Rock-Lark, Titlark, and Tree-Lark are Pipits.
1890 Nature Notes 1 24 With regard to ‘larks’, the Mudlark is the Skylark, so called from its nest being lined with mud.
a1903 W. M. E. Fowler in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1903) IV. 190/1 [Hampshire] Bunt-larks is rare, but mud-larks is vary common hereabouts.
1913 H. K. Swann Dict. Eng. & Folk-names Brit. Birds 162 Mud Lark, a name for the Rock-Pipit.
1968 C. E. Jackson Brit. Names of Birds 40 Dunlin:..mud-lark Glos.
b. Australian. The magpie lark, Grallina cyanoleuca, which builds a bowl-shaped nest of mud.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > larger song birds > [noun] > family Grallinidae > grallina cyanoleuca (magpie lark)
magpie lark1843
peewee1879
mudlark1898
Murray magpie1940
1898 E. E. Morris Austral Eng. 278/1 Magpie-Lark..an Australian black-and-white bird..resembling the Magpie in appearance, but smaller; called also Pee-wee, and Mudlark, from its building its nest of mud.
1911 E. M. Clowes On Wallaby xi. 290 The mud larks, rather like our water-wagtails, only much larger, come there with the most wanton flutter of broad black and white tails.
1965 Austral. Encycl. V. 460/1 The name ‘magpie-lark’ was presumably bestowed upon it because it runs on the ground like a lark and has pied plumage;..‘mud-lark’, owing to its preference for the muddy banks of creeks and waterholes.
1978 D. Stuart Wedgetail View 36 Magpie, mudlark and shell parrot spearing in jewelled wave through spinifex.
4. colloquial. A horse which runs well in wet or muddy conditions; = mudder n.1 1.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > racehorse > with particular qualities or faults
sticker1779
rogue1796
first string1865
coward1880
mudder1892
goat1894
morning-glory1898
mud runner1905
mudlark1906
squib1908
1906 Bar & Buffet Aug. 9/4 Mud lark, a horse that excels on a muddy track.
1914 A. B. Paterson in Song of Pen (1983) 312 Some horses revel in mud... The mudlark contingent are generally horses with good loin power.
1975 Sunday Tel. (Sydney) 6 Apr. 48 Born Star a Mudlark. Born Star, a two-year-old, yesterday outclassed the field at Sandown in his first start on a rain-affected track.
1994 Sporting Life 28 Oct. 3/2 This son of Conquistador Cielo (a prolific sire of mudlarks) took a conditions race on a sloppy track by 12 and a half lengths.
Compounds
mudlark meet n. colloquial a sporting event for old cars, run on tidal mud or sand.
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1971 National Geographic May 719/2 Guernsey invented annual mudlark meets, in which old bangers—near-wrecked automobiles—are raced across the oozing sands at low tide.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
mudlarkv.
/ˈmʌdlɑːk/, U.S. /ˈmədˌlɑrk/ intransitive. To carry on the occupation or activity of a mudlark (in various senses); to play in or with mud.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > other amusements or entertainments > [verb (intransitive)]
wawc1440
swing1662
quizc1790
sea-bathe1792
mudlark1870
pogo1921
yo-yo1932
to jump rope1934
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > dirt > dirtiness or soiling with specific kinds of dirt > be or become dirty or soiled with specific kinds of dirt [verb (intransitive)] > be dirty by being trailed in mud > wallow or dabble in mud
muddlea1450
moila1566
soss1575
spuddle1630
mudlark1870
1870 Cornhill Mag. 21 366 If I had only had that money of Miss Childersleigh's, instead of mud-larking on the bank.
1894 Outing 24 193/2 He mingled with us for some time on the beach, mudlarked with the boys and watched our model yacht matches.
1962 P. Scott Birds of Paradise (1967) II. iii. 124 The Water, was, I suppose, my youth's equivalent of the childhood place of rhododendrons, but..I never played there, never took off my shoes and socks, splashed and mudlarked in it.
1990 H. Thurston Tidal Life 11/3 I have gone ‘mud-larking’ across the intertidal barrens of the Fundy mud flats to dig clams.
1995 Independent on Sunday 19 Feb. (Review Suppl.) 70/2 Mudlarking through centuries of rubbish, you feel literally in touch with the people of the past.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1785v.1870