prowl, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

prowl n.

1. (US Und., also prowl job, prowling job) a burglary.

1907		Wash. Times (DC) 6 Oct. 11/1: Another of the gang got two years for shooting the chief of police in a small town, while on a prowl job.
1910		Sun (NY) 27 Mar. 11/2: There were reported twenty-seven burglaries and fifty-three prowling jobs.
1911		D. Runyon ‘The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew’ in From First to Last (1954) 75: There was five of us in the sneezer, held as suspects on a house prowl job.
1927		C. Coe Me – Gangster 188: You an’ him pulled off a prowl.
1929		E. Booth Stealing Through Life 193: Say! why didn’t you send word to Dan or me after you was clouted in that house prowl?
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 4: He said how easy it was to pull a prowl (burglary) and named different gangs that were out in the burglary racket.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 164/2: Prowl. 1. Burglary, especially when executed by stealth rather than force. 2. Any furtive or stealthy prowling in search of loot, prey, information, etc.

2. (US Und.) a survey of somewhere that is to be robbed; a search of a place or individual.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 67: prowl [...] An expeditionary investigation; a survey in transit; a search of the person or of a place in the sense of ‘frisk’.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 813: prowl – An investigational work; especially one taken for the purpose of planning a robbery or estimating the opportunities for one.

3. (US police/und.) a prowl car.

1952

W.R. Burnett Vanity Row 183: ‘A prowl rolled up right beside the drain and when the guy with the gun looked out of the man-hole there they were’.

prowl job (n.)

see sense 1 above.

on the prowl

1. (US Und.) working as a housebreaker, committing or planning a robbery; living on one’s wits.

1931		F.A. Waterhouse ’Twixt Hell & Allah 116: [T]he German, with two companions, had gone on the prowl in the town. The trio had chanced upon the house of the sheikh, and with a natural curiosity to determine its value for loot, they had crept through the outer wall .
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 138: On the Prowl. – Committing burglary, or looking for an opportunity to do so. Living on one’s wits.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 102: go on the prowl To engage in sneak thievery.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 164/2: Prowl, on the. 1. Engaged in, or by means of sneak-thievery, especially in private homes or apartments. 2. In the act of prowling about in search of loot or information.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 811: on the prowl – Committing burglary or looking for an opportunity to do so.

2. working in prostitution.

1930		Burnley News 10 May 14/3: ‘You’re wasting your time,’ Anna retorted cooly. ‘I’ve been on the prowl round here myself’.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 143: To deal first with the smaller lexicon, we turn to the dolly boys of The Dilly (Piccadilly Circus) who are on the street or on the prowl.