Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to watch, to survey, to notice.

1835		Worcester Herald 26 Dec. 4/3: I narks you, or, he narks you, I understand you, or, he’s up to you.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 67: nark to watch, or look after; ‘nark the titter,’ watch the girl.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1881		Newcastle Courant 25 Nov. 6/5: In the first place I’ll nark the leer.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: Nark - To watch, to look after; ‘Nark the titter,’ watch the girl.
1891		A. Day Mysterious Beggar 264: If you’re a bit skeery, then ’till the thing’s well coppered, you can nark ’round on the sly.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. [as 1882].
1907		Truth (Perth) 19 Oct. 4/6: Why sing of the bull-ant who narks our caress / When we’re smoodging with Sal at the seaside?
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 257: You narked that bloke in the stinkpot?

2. to inform to the police or prison authorities.

1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 4 Oct. 12/1: Every evening after dark, / I goes around the slops to nark.
1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 69: It was the sole commandment that ran there: ‘Thou shalt not nark’.
1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 233: After fifteen years of narking he finds he is getting stale [...] the slops no longer trust him.
1928		Framlingham Wkly News 8 Dec. 3/7: Thieves’ Dialect [...] To ‘nark,’ the darkest crime in the thieves’ decalogue, is to lodge an information against a confederate.
1946		S. Jackson An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 32: It is easy enough to talk to anybody in Soho once people are sure that you are not [...] narking for the police.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 98: They’d nark on their own mother, some people.
1966		B. Reckord Skyvers I ii: Some geezer might have narked [...] and it’s a stretch in store for them.

3. to betray someone; to inform upon; to concoct evidence against or blame.

1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 183: Old Weech narked ye? ’Owjer know that?
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 260: He’s surrounded by a army o’ go-betweens and footwipes and cats-paws as can no more break away or nark ’n what a lame ladybird can get off a wheel by running up the tyre as it goes around.
1932		E. Blair ‘Clink’ Aug. in Complete Works X (1998) 259: I was narked — narked by my own sister! Yes, my own fucking sister.
1974		H. Levin Bandiet 121: The authorities maintained control very largely through narks and narking.
1978		G. Newbold ‘Social Organization of Prisons’ dissertation U. Auckland 319: The most rigid and inviolable injunction of the inmate community [...] is that which prohibits the informing of officials concerning the underground activities of prisoners [...] this is known as ‘narking’ or ‘grassing’.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 178: The worst thing a person in jail can do is nark on a fellow prisoner.
1992		A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 31: Jube, I wouldn’t nark on - I know ya wouldn’t, but there’s plenty who’re asking questions about you, Mahia .
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 123/1: nark v. (also nark on or nark off) v. 1 to inform (on), to betray, to testify against. 2 to blame. 3 to fabricate evidence in order to secure a conviction; to use false evidence against the accused.

4. (mainly Aus./N.Z.) to annoy, to irritate.

1888		J. Dalby Mayroyd of Mytholm II 45: ‘That’s just what he’s ta’en to him for,’ said the landlady – ‘just to nark Mayroyd.’.
1892		‘Fanny Flukem’s Ball’ in Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) in J. Murray Larrikins (1973) 40: I’m a cut above such jigs as that; / For spare me days, I am, / But it narks a bloomin’ girl to see / Such trollops put on jam.
1896		Dubbo Liberal (NSW) 17 June 3/3: This has ‘narked’ the writers sore.
1902		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 2 Mar. 1/1: A ‘lydy’ who saw ‘just cause and impediment’ tured up an hour too late to nark the nuptials.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 24: I could see I’d narked ’er.
1919		Aussie (France) XII Mar. 1/2: One night our Company Commander chose an unfortunate combination that greatly narked the C.O.
1928		Capricorn (Rockhampton, Qld) 20 Dec. 19/1: If i thought it would nark my people [...] I’d marry her twice.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 482: You did it just to nark me for what I said last week.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 304: I’d probably live to a hundred and nark the bloody lot of ’em.
1965		R.H. Conquest Horses in Kitchen 214: Even though I might nark McMulga by saying so, I really enjoyed that trip out to the oil country.
2000		Indep. Rev. 14 Feb. 20: What narks me [...] is the shallowness of the thinking behind it.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] Warren didn’t like [the movie] But said he did just to nark les.

5. to complain, to nag.

1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 169: Ach, stop your bloody narking.
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 109: She narked at me continuously.
1975		A. Bleasdale Scully 160: I hear them narking at each other in the hallway.
1981		(con. c.1920) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 112: She’s a different sort of woman, / And doesn’t try to nark.
1998		P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 32: Never once did I have to nag or nark.