Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun slang A pig; pork.
- noun One who
scavenges inriver or harbormud for items ofvalue , especially inLondon during theIndustrial Revolution . Also applies to a person scavenging sewers. A person that begs near a river. (rare) A sewer cleaner. (rare) - noun A child who spends most of their time in the streets especially in slum areas. A child who plays in the mud. Any dirty or unkempt person.
- noun Nickname for a soldier of the Royal Engineers.
- noun Assorted birds that are found in muddy places or build their nests with mud. Especially Anthus petrosus and Alauda arvensis.
- noun Australian The Grallina cyanoleuca that builds its nest with mud into a bowl like shape.
- noun A racing horse that performs well on muddy or wet tracks.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It was found by a mudlark – one of the small army of amateur archaeologists who scour the beaches and mudflats of the river at low tide.
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You wade along in this way step by step, like a mudlark at Portsmouth
South: the story of Shackleton’s last expedition 1914–1917 2006
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With the aid of a mudlark -- a mere barge boy, who probably had no more right on the barge than Jules himself -- Racksole had won his game.
The Grand Babylon Hotel Arnold Bennett 1899
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There is at least one powerful bond, though it may not always awake sympathy, between mudlark and monarch -- that of hunger.
Sir Gibbie George MacDonald 1864
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I now became a regular mudlark, though I got employment when I could by running on errands and in assisting the boatmen on the river.
Peter Biddulph The Story of an Australian Settler William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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All our talk of the middle class these days is fine, but Dickens knew the higher and the lower, the much lower: the mudlark, the wasting orphan, the prison child, the crossing sweeper, the dun, the dustman, the shabby clerk, the street philosopher.
Slate Articles Michael Levenson 2011
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All our talk of the middle class these days is fine, but Dickens knew the higher and the lower, the much lower: the mudlark, the wasting orphan, the prison child, the crossing sweeper, the dun, the dustman, the shabby clerk, the street philosopher.
Slate Articles Michael Levenson 2012
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Carlisle 2.50 Ultra-competitive stuff but the mudlark
Blogposts | guardian.co.uk Will Hayler 2010
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A noted mudlark, Purple is unbeaten from two attempts on heavy tracks, and has recorded three wins and a placing from five starts on slow ground.
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Deteriorating conditions are not a concern for mudlark
yarb commented on the word mudlark
"The ball and chain was found in a Rotherhithe barge bed by an official mudlark – there are many amateurs but only a few have permits to actually dig in the Thames foreshore – called Steve Brooker. "I almost left it there to be honest because for three weeks in a row I'd had cannonball after cannonball and this looked like another one," he said."
- Mystery over ball and chain found in Thames, Guardian.co.uk, 26-8-9.
August 27, 2009
gangerh commented on the word mudlark
HaHa! What a load of mudlarkey.
August 27, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word mudlark
That's a really cool story. Thanks for posting! I thought I remembered this word from The Ghost Map, and apparently (sionnach's list at right) I did. :)
August 27, 2009
yarb commented on the word mudlark
I wonder how you get an official mudlark's permit. I bet they're nigh on impossible to obtain, the product of a byzantine process, masonic ties, hereditary debts and murkly kinships.
August 27, 2009
reesetee commented on the word mudlark
Positively Dickensian.
August 28, 2009
MaryW commented on the word mudlark
Dan Fagin, Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation (New York: Bantam Books, 2014), p. 85February 7, 2016