25 June 2018

mudlark

[muhd-lahrk]

noun

1. Chiefly British. a person who gains a livelihood by searching for iron, coal, old ropes, etc., in mud or low tide.
2. Chiefly British Informal. a street urchin.
3. either of two black and white birds, Grallina cyanoleuca, of Australia, or G. bruijni, of New Guinea, that builds a large, mud nest.
verb (used without object)
4. to grub or play in mud.

Origin of mudlark

1790-1800 First recorded in 1790-1800; mud + lark1

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for mudlark

Historical Examples

This was Captain Abersouth, formerly of the mudlark —as good a seaman as ever sat on the taffrail reading a three volume novel.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8
Ambrose Bierce

So I shipped as mate on the mudlark, bound from London to wherever the captain might think it expedient to sail.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8
Ambrose Bierce

On the voyage of which I write he had taken no cargo at all; he said it would only make the mudlark heavy and slow.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8
Ambrose Bierce

You wade along in this way step by step, like a mudlark at Portsmouth Hard, hoping gradually to regain the surface.
South!
Sir Ernest Shackleton

As a lad I slept with the rats, held horses, swept crossings and lived like a mudlark !
The Strollers
Frederic S. Isham

Today’s quote

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

– George Orwell

On this day

25 June 1903 – birth of George Orwell (born Eric Arthur Blair), Democratic Socialist and English author of works such as ‘Nineteen-Eighty Four‘, ‘Animal Farm‘, and ‘Homage to Catalonia‘. Died 21 January 1950.

25 June 1947 – The Diary of a Young Girl (better known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is first published.

25 June 1978 – the Rainbow Flag, symbol of gay pride, is flown for the first time in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.