mudlark

From mud +‎ lark.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌdlɑːk/

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mudlark (plural mudlarks)

1. (slang, now rare) A pig; pork. [from 18th c.]
2. (now rare, chiefly historical) One who scavenges in river or harbor mud for items of value, especially in London. [from 18th c.]
   • 1799, George Mogridge, Old Humphrey's walks in London and its neighbourhood‎, Religious Tract Society, page 286:

     Besides these, there were the mudlark and the scupple hunter: the former prowling about at low water, receiving in his small bag such petty packages as he could get from his dishonest friends on board; and the later sneaking about the wharves and quays, under the pretense of wanting work, to pick up everything and anything that came to hand.

   • 2019 August, Neil Armstrong, “A Real Muck Raker”, in Literary Review:

     She removes only what the water ‘delivers’ to her – items she can see lying on the surface. Unlike some other mudlarks, she does not dig for finds.

   • 2020 February 12, Megan Specia, “Mudlarks Scour the Thames to Uncover 2,000 Years of Secrets”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Dr. Fiona Haughey, a London archaeologist who has worked on the Thames since the 1990s, said that although some mudlarks are looking for valuables, others are looking for a connection with the everyday objects of a bygone Britain.

3. A child who plays in the mud; a child that spends most of its time in the streets, a street urchin. [from 19th c.]
   • 1995, Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing, Vintage, published 2007, page 104:

     the children were nothing like inert: a large population of junior mudlarks, so long unwashed that you could hardly make them out, climbed among the ruins, cheerfully playing the games that all children play – pushing wheels with sticks, flipping rusty lids and bottle caps in makeshift tiddlywinks.

4. (slang) A soldier of the Royal Engineers. [from 19th c.]
5. (UK, regional) Any of various birds that are found in muddy places or build their nests with mud, especially Anthus petrosus and Alauda arvensis. [from 19th c.]
6. (Australia) The Grallina cyanoleuca that builds its nest with mud into a bowl-like shape. [from 19th c.]
7. A racehorse that performs well on muddy or wet tracks. [from 20th c.]

   Synonym: mudder

mudlark (third-person singular simple present mudlarks, present participle mudlarking, simple past and past participle mudlarked)

1. (intransitive) To scavenge in river or harbor mud for items of value.