Word.ws English Dictionary

nark

UK/nɑːk/US/nɑːɹk/

nark noun: a police spy or informer. Also the alternative form of narc.

Noun

nark (plural narks)

  1. (Ireland, UK, slang) A police spy or informer.
    • So I went and laid down on the grass. While laying there I piped a reeler whom I knew. He had a nark (a policeman's spy) with him. So I went and looked about for my two pals, and told them to look out for F. and his nark.1879 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Horsley, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves’ Language”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XL, number 240, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 505, column 1
    • the bystander. […] She thought you was a copper's nark, sir. / the note taker [with quick interest] Whats a copper's nark? / the bystander [inapt at definition] It's a—well, it's a copper's nark, as you might say. What else would you call it? A sort of informer.1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act I, pages 109–110
  2. (Australia, slang) An unpleasant person, especially one who makes things difficult for others.

Verb

nark (third-person singular simple present narks, present participle narking, simple past and past participle narked)

  1. (intransitive, slang, transitive) To serve or behave as a spy or informer; to tattle.
    • “If you nark on me, I’ll rip your arms off,” said Tim to his brother, as he passed him a joint.
    • I don’t trust that guy; he’s gonna nark us out.
  2. (slang, transitive) To annoy or irritate.
    • It really narks me when people smoke in restaurants.
  3. (intransitive, slang) To complain.
    • He narks in my ear all day, moaning about his problems.
  4. (imperative, often, slang, transitive) To stop.
    • Nark it! I hear someone coming!

Also used as

nark is also the alternative form of narc.

Synonyms of nark

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of nark

Forms of nark

Noun
pluralnarks
alternative formnarc
Verb
third-person singular presentnarks
present participlenarking
past participlenarked
pastnarked

Origin of nark

Uncertain. Perhaps from Angloromani nok (“nose”), from Romani nakh, from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀡𑀓𑁆𑀓 (ṇakka), ultimately a doublet of nose.

See narc.

Words formed from nark

  • narking dues
  • narky
  • nark it

Words that rhyme with nark

28 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about nark

What does nark mean?
Nark means a police spy or informer.
What part of speech is nark?
Nark can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce nark?
Nark is pronounced /nɑːk/ (UK).
What is the plural of nark?
The plural of nark is narks.

Words near nark in the dictionary

  1. narishkeit
  2. Narita
  3. nariyal
  4. nariyals
  5. Nariño
  6. nark
  7. Narka
  8. narked
  9. narketan
  10. narkid
  11. narkids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nark (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-nark.ogg.

Cite this entry: “nark.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nark. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.