mudlark

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From mud +‎ lark.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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[1], 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[2], →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

Verb

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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.