Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a hog.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1923		DN V. 240: Boiled potatoes an’ mud lark.

2. (also mudlarker) a waterside thief, who picks up packages thrown to them by a ship’s crew-member.

1797		P. Colquhoun Police of the Metropolis 58: These aquatic plunderers... practise another device, by connecting themselves with men and boys, known by the name of mud-larks, who prowl about, and watch under the ship when the tide will permit, and to whom they throw small parcels of sugar, coffee and other articles of plunder, which are conveyed to the receivers by the mud-larks, who generally have a certain share of the booty.
1800		P. Colquhoun Commerce and Police of the River Thames 232: The Watermen were no longer observed hanging about Ships [...] nor were the Mudlarks to be seen.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome I 26: Slopmen, Mud-larkers and Crimps.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 104: A man might as well talk of the beauties of Grecian building in the reign of King Harry, as of the frauds committed by ‘scuffle-hunters, mudlarks, light horsemen and heavy horsemen upon the trade of the river Thames’.
1852		Kendal Mercury 3 Apr. 6/1: The maimed dodge is introduced [...] Yet these worthies, so far from having their arm burned. scalded or blasted by an accidnt, are but mud-larks in another costume — self-wounded cadgers.
2002		(con. 1950) M. McGrath Silvertown 197: The donkey man who operates the winch will be in on the scam and he’ll skew the winch every so often so that some of the cargo lands in the water, to be [...] picked up at lowtide by mudlarks.

3. a barge boy.

1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 394: The Link-boys, the Mud-larks, and the Watermen, who hang round public-house doors to feed horses, &c. club up their brads for a kevarten of Stark-naked in three outs.
1902		A. Bennett Grand Babylon Hotel 207: With the aid of a mudlark – a mere barge boy, who probably had no more right on the barge than Jules himself.

4. one who scavenges items from the Thames mud.

c.1800		‘Song No. 21’ Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: A Kiddy boy from Broad St. Giles no better than a mud lark.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Mud Lark. A fellow who goes about by the water side picking up coals, nails, or other articles in the mud.
1828		G. Smeeton Doings in London 126: There is still a more wretched class of beings than the Grubbers [...] called Mud-Larks: the occupation of these draggle-tail wretches commences on the banks of the Thames at low water.
1839		(con. 1715) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 153: Mudlarks, badgers and rat-catchers.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 10 5: Mudlarks, sewer-gropers, rat-catchers, finders, river thieves, steambout touters, waterside beggars, waterside thieves.
1867		J. Greenwood Unsentimental Journeys 151: Mud-larks are of two kinds: the coal-finder and the bone-grubber.
1874		H. Mayhew London Characters 349: I had seen the wretched herd of mudlarks, sewer-hunters, rag-pickers [...] huddled together of a night at a ‘twopenny rope’.
1889		Clarkson & Richardson Police! 121: Another improvement was the disappearance of the mudlarks, or the grapplers and draggers for old ropes.
1916		J.N. Hall Kitchener’s Mob 108: Wot’s the use a-witin’ ’ere / Like a lot o’ bloomin’ mud-larks / For old Fritzie to appear?
1995		(con. 1860s) P. Ackroyd Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem 20: She walked slowly past the river bank where the rats and the ‘mud-larks’ went about their work.
2000		Guardian G2 8 Mar. 22: You need a licence from the Port of London Authority to become an accredited mudlark.

5. a duck.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

6. a scavenger for scrap-iron.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 122: Mud-larks — fellows who scratch about in gutters for horse-nails and other fragments of scrap-iron.

7. a collector for a bank.

1864, 1867, 1870

Hotten Sl. Dict. 183: Mud-lark Those who are employed in banks and counting-houses, in collecting and other out-door duties, have also this appellation.

8. one who steals copper and other items from boats moored in the Thames.

1856

H. Mayhew Great World of London I 46: Mudlarks, who steal pieces of rope, coal and wood from the barges at the wharves.

9. a sewerman.

1859, 1860

Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.

10. a street child, a ‘gutter urchin’.

1911		L. Stone Jonah 60: You dart is ter be king of the push, an’ knock about the streets with a lot of mudlarks.
1916		N. Douglas London Street Games 130: Talking of real stones, there’s no doubt whatever that games played with them are the oldest in the world, together with the mud-larks.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

11. (UK, WWI) a soldier who sings in the trenches.

1921

N&Q 12 Ser. IX 466: Mud-Lark. Anyone singing in the trenches.

12. (Aus.) a resident or native of Victoria, Australia.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 763/1: C.20.

13. (Aus./US) a racehorse that enjoys muddy going.

1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 341: ‘Who win it, d’ye know?’ ‘A mud lark named Jeanne D’Arc.’.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Mudlark, a race horse that excels in mud.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 21: He was interested in horses, mudlarks particularly.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 46: Raining like it was last Saturdee? ’E’s no mudlark.
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 99: The Queen’s dark horse came seventh, second, last. Garry was up seventy quid before it rained and the mudlarks came in.
1996		Ozwords Oct. 🌐 mudlark a horse that runs well on wet tracks.