subs. and verb. (old).—(1) (HUGH PROWLER) = a thief or highwayman; (2) PROWLING (or PROWLERY) = robbery; (3) to womanize; to GROUSE (q.v.); to go after MEAT (q.v.), B. E. (c. 1696); (4, theatrical) = to wait for the GHOST (q.v.) to walk.
1557. TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, xxxiii. 25. For feare of HEW PROWLER, get home with the rest.
1635. QUARLES, Emblems, ii. 2. We pry, we PROWL … we prog from pole to pole.
1692. J. HACKET, Life of Archbishop Williams, I. 51. Thirty-seven monopolies, with other shocking PROWLERIES.
1885. Daily Telegraph, 4 Sept. There are so many young PROWLERS on the lookout that they’d precious soon empty a bin.
