nighthawk n.
1. (also hawk, night-shark) anyone who likes to stay up late, usu. for reasons of criminality; also attrib.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Rob Roy (1883) 323: There are night-hawks abroad. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 19 Mar. n.p.: The market is still thronged with buzzards and night-hawks, and the streets are full of filthy females. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 14 Aug. 3/2: Two gents, of the night-hawk tribe, went into the hotel. | |
| Calif. Police Gazette 10 Apr. 2/3: This would have been a nice thing for the ‘night hawks’ had they discovered him before the officer took him in custody. | |
| N.Y. Times 4 Feb. 2/6: The saloon was full of sporting men and Broadway night-hawks. | |
| Lantern (N.O.) 27 Oct. 3: All the nighthawks congregate here. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 52: Night Hawks, poachers or prostitutes. | |
| I’m from Missouri 102: Only a few night-hawks remained. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 29 Dec. 24/1: About a week previous in his nighthawk wanderings he was attracted by a big fire. | |
| Goodwin’s Wkly (Salt Lake City, UT) 13 May 6/2: There are any number of rough-neck night-hawks who make a business of going to the best cafes. | |
| [instrumental title] Night Hawk Blues. | |
| ‘A Modern Marriage’ Coll. Stories (1990) 118: Her handsome, fickle, nighthawk husband, Eddie. | |
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 20 June 21/1: Thew hawks are finding a new after-midnite interest in Ross and Jerry’s Seventh Ave. Sandwich Shop. | |
| Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 27: It’s usually slack about this time. The night-hawks are folding up, and the morning crowd comes in after breakfast. | |
| In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 27: In spite of the weather, nighthawks were finally gathering outside Gentry’s. | |
| Whores for Gloria 2: The street was full of night-sharks. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |
2. (US) a worker on a night shift.
| letter 8 Jan. in Letters (1917) I 9: Jack Van Nostrand, Dan and I, (all Quaker City night-hawks,) had a blow-out at Dan’s house. | |
| Lone Cowboy 134: I’d get to see the boys [...] whenever they changed horses, and when the ‘Nighthawk’ (night-wrangler) took my place in herding the horses for the night. [Ibid.] 172: The jinx seemed to’ve camped on that outfit’s tail, far as nighthawks was concerned. One had been busted up pretty bad [...] Another had been killed by lightning. | |
| While Rome Burns 180: Your correspondent, a nighthawk of parts in those days, was within ear-shot. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 162: nighthawk [...] a night watchman. | |
| (con. 1908) Schoolboy, Cowboy, Mexican Spy 42: He was the outfit’s nighthawk [...] A night herder’s job was important. |
3. (US, also hawk) a taxi that plys for trade at night; also its driver.
 | Monterey Sentinel 4 Aug. 1/1: And don’t you remember the Sundays, Bill Burns? Where the ‘night hawks’ and drivers would come [DA]. | |
| Mysteries of N.Y. 15: [T]he night-hawks of New York are birds the average citizen had best beware of. | |
| Mysteries of N.Y. 16: When the dance-house lights are extinguished, [...] the hawks prowl off, or to use the expression of the craft, ‘goes cruising’. | |
| Fort Worth Dly Gaz. (TX) 15 Nov. 6/3: The all-night hack-drivers[...] the ‘night-hawk’ as he is called. | |
| ‘How Hefty Burke Got Even’ 🌐 Stuff M’Govern, who drove a night-hawk, and who was a particular admirer of Hefty’s, even though as a cabman he was in a higher social scale than the driver of an ice-cart, agreed to carry Hefty and his half-ton of armour to the Garden. | |
| Scribner’s Mag. XXIII 443/2: Standing at the curb [...] are a few ‘night hawks’ [DA]. | |
| St Louis Republican (MO) 28 May 4/3: He drives away, leaving the cabman [...] His face is known to every ‘nighthawk’ in the tenderloin. | |
| ‘From the Cabby’s Seat’ Four Million (1915) 167: Night-hawk was Jerry called, but no more lustrous or cleaner hansom than his ever closed its doors upon point lace and November violets. | |
| Wash. Herald (DC) 11 Jan. 34/2: He must have seen the night-hawk cab [...] that sodden-leathered nighthawk went placidly rolling up Fifth Avenue. | |
| ‘The King in Yellow’ Spanish Blood (1946) 53: There were two nighthawk cabs in the line. | |
| USA Confidential 62: The wise nighthawk pulled up before a police station and ran in. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |
4. a prostitute.
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 11 Oct. n.p.: Next on my list are those three night hawks, Sal C—r, Ellen F—n, and Lib D. | |
| S.F. Call 10 Jan. 13/1: Half the chorus girls on Broadway called him by his first name and any nighthawk in the tenderloin could take him home at 2 o’clock in the morning. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Under Groove 5: I want it all, from the old Irish news-women and [...] the night-hawks of the Tenderloin. | |
| ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 209: night-hawk, a [...] harlot. | |
| ‘The Madame Plays the Gee-Gees’ in Gun Molls Sept. 🌐 Enamored momentarily by the glamour of some peroxided Broadway night hawk. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 236/2: night hawk (night worker) – [...] sometimes a prostitute. | |
| 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 37: Similar terms for women who ply their trade after the sun goes down include nightbird, nighthawk, and owl. |
5. (Aus./US) a thief, esp. one who works at night.
| Progress (Shreveport, LA) 2 Apr. 4/3: Bienville parish has her lawless night-hawks too. | |
| ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 209: night-hawk, a thief. | |
| I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 236/2: night hawk (night worker) – usually a thief. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Anatomy of Crime 194: Night Hawk: Burglar. | |
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. | |
| Lowspeak 104: Nighthawk – burglar. |