Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to cheat, to defraud, to steal; thus sharking n. [shark n. (3a)].

1590		Bk of Sir Thomas Moore facs.(D) (1911) I vi: Other ruffians as their fancies wrought [...] woold shark on you.
1613		Beaumont & Fletcher Honest Man’s Fortune III iii: You know you can shark, though you be out of action.
1623		Middleton & Rowley Spanish Gypsy II i: Some of them do but shark, and so do we.
1633		J. Earle Microcosmographie No. 75: An ordinary honest Fellow [...] do’s it faire and above boord without legerdemaine, and neither sharkes for a cup or a reckoning.
1643		Horn & Robotham (trans.) Gate of Languages Unlocked Ch. 83 817: A sharker (shifter) or make-shift sharks for money.
1669		R. L’Estrange Fables of Anianus (1692) CCXLI 218: It was Nature that taught this Boy to Shark.
1672		M. Atkins Cataplus 19: So that thou canst delude by barking / As well as Reinard pullets sharking.
1841		Flash (NY) 26 Sept. n.p.: Ye sharking, shoplifting, rum-drinking, pocket-picking, roost-robbing, brothel-frequenting [...] rascals.
1855		Yokel’s Preceptor title page: Here will be found A Capital Show-Up of the Most Infamous Pegging Kens, Sharking Fakes, Gulping Holes, Bellowsing Rooms, Fencing Cribs, Molly Clubs, Dossing Hotels, Fleecing Holes.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 384/2: Us sailor chaps sometimes sharks the Custom-house lubbers, sharp as they are.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Nov. 4/8: In his sales of hogs and hay / Oft the cocky’s sharked.
1912		‘Guns, Q.F.C. & P. Theeluker’ Middle Watch Musings (4th edn) in DSUE (8th edn) 1984.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 254: Shark, To: To steal.
1933		(con. WWI) F. Richards Old Soldiers Never Die (1964) 67: The head of that firm should have been [...] shot for the way they sharked us troops.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 115: I been sharked out of fifteen bucks!
1974		(con. 1945) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 293: He [...] combed his hair into a gelatinous country pomp and tithed his pay and tithed the vigorish on his sharking.

2. (US) to hold on to something, to delay.

1911

B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 22 Dec. [synd. cartoon] Aw, roll ’em out, Judge, don’t shark ’em [i.e. dice].

3. (Aus./US) to drift around looking for sexual conquests.

1913		Sport (Adelaide) 11 Jan. 13/2: They Say [...] That J.P. and W.C. were seen sharking down Carlisle-street Sunday night. Wonder what for?
1947		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 7 June 23: He starts ‘sharking’ around and soon eyeballs the prettiest woman in the house.

4. (US black) of police, to raid, to pursue.

1947

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 15 Nov. 23: That 52nd St. raid was really a flop since they were sharking for three [...] peddlers of that stuff.

5. to treat unfairly, to victimize [SE shark].

1959

H. Ellison ‘May We Also Speak’ in Gentleman Junkie (1961) 30: There was the simple way out of sharking someone else. Making someone else guilty.