mudlark
UK/ˈmʌdlɑːk/
mudlark noun: a pig; pork.
Noun
mudlark (plural mudlarks)
- A pig; pork.
- One who scavenges in river or harbor mud for items of value, especially in London.
- 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...1799, George Mogridge, Old Humphrey's walks in London and its neighbourhood, Religious Tract Society, page 286
- 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.2019 August, Neil Armstrong, “A Real Muck Raker”, in Literary Review
- A child who plays in the mud; a child that spends most of its time in the streets, a street urchin.
- 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.1995, Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing, Vintage, published 2007, page 104
- A soldier of the Royal Engineers.
- Any of various birds that are found in muddy places or build their nests with mud, especially Anthus petrosus and Alauda arvensis.
- The Grallina cyanoleuca that builds its nest with mud into a bowl-like shape.
- A racehorse that performs well on muddy or wet tracks.
- Synonyms:
- mudder
Verb
mudlark (third-person singular simple present mudlarks, present participle mudlarking, simple past and past participle mudlarked)
Synonyms of mudlark
Forms of mudlark
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | mudlarks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | mudlarks |
| present participle | mudlarking |
| past participle | mudlarked |
| past | mudlarked |
Origin of mudlark
From mud + lark.
Words formed from mudlark
Questions about mudlark
- What does mudlark mean?
- Mudlark means a pig; pork.
- What part of speech is mudlark?
- Mudlark can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce mudlark?
- Mudlark is pronounced /ˈmʌdlɑːk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of mudlark?
- The plural of mudlark is mudlarks.
Words near mudlark in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mudlark (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-mudlark.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mudlark.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mudlark. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.