mudlark

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Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /ˈmʌdlɑːk/

Noun

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.]
   • 2019, Neil Armstrong, ‘A Real Muck Raker’, Literary Review, August:

     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.

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 2007, p. 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. (AU) 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.]

   Synonyms: mudder

Verb

mudlark (mudlarks, present participle mudlarking; past and past participle mudlarked)

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

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