or copper’s-nark, subs. (common).—A police spy; a common informer.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS (See also BEAK and COPPER). Buz-man; D; dee; deeker; fox; marker; nose; noser; peach (omnibus spy); pig; piper (omnibus spy); queer-rooster; rat; rosser (or rozzer); setter; shadow; shepherd; snitcher; split; spotter; squealer; stag (or stagger); tec; teck; worm.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Un arnacq (also arnache); une bourrique (= an ass); le cadratin (generic); une casserole; un charieur; un contre-allumeur (= spy engaged by thieves to counteract the machinations of the police); un coqueur (also coqueur mouton, or musicien = a prison-informer); un coquin (= knave); un correcteur (a prison-spy); un cuisinier; un diable; un fileur; un flancheur; un friquet (= tree-sparrow); un gobemouches (= gull trap); un grand meudon; un gaffeur; un indicateur; un larnac (see arnacq: also rousse à larnac); un macaron; un mireur; un mouchard; une mouche (= fly [q.v.]); un mouton (a prisoner-spy); un bourgeois de nuit; un rousse (also roussin and une rousselette); une vache; un vesto de la cuisine.
1879. J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL., 505. He had a NARK (policeman’s spy) with him.
1887. W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Good-Night, iii.
| For you, you coppers, NARKS, and dubs, | |
| Who pinched me when upon the snam. |
1888. Daily Chronicle, 29 Dec. Take that, you COPPER’S NARK!
1889. Daily Telegraph, 11 Sept. You are what is known as a COPPER’S NARK, are you not?
1892. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 60. I once knew a COPPER’S NARK, as earned many a quid.
1895. Daily Telegraph, 26 Feb., 3. Is not a COPPER’S NARK an associate of thieves, who gives information against his companions to assist the police? Certainly not. A COPPER’S NARK would not go amongst thieves.
1898. Pall Mall Gazette, 19 Jan., 2, 3. The NARKS may light upon that swag even yet.
Verb. (thieves’).—To see; to watch; to spy.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. To buz; to castell; to dick; to fox; to lay; to mark; to nose; to ogle; to pipe; to quiz; to roast (or roast-brown); to shadow; to shepherd; to skin; to snitch; to spot; to stag; to tout; to twire; to be on the beefment; to be on the pounce.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Etre à l’affut (colloquial); battre l’antif (also = to pad the hoof); borgner; coquer; donner la chasse à la rousse (thieves’: = to watch the police); faire le gaf; filer un sinve; faire la filature (or lâcher de la filature) à quel-qu’un; exhiber; gaffer (also gaffiner); allumer son gaz; surbiner.
1886–9. MARSHALL, Honest Bill [‘Pomes,’ 49]. You’d be sure to NARK the ruby round his gill.
1889. The Sporting Times, 29 June. And as terseness of expression was an art she’d studied well, She determined that her lady friend should NARK it.
