humbug

en-noun

humbug (countable and uncountable, plural humbugs)

→ Finnish: humpuuki

→ German: Humbug

→ Hungarian: humbug (perhaps in part through German)

→ Polish: humbug (perhaps in part through German)

John Camden Hotten
Oxford English Dictionary
Piccadilly

Origin unknown; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention”. It has been suggested that the word possibly derives from hummer (“(slang) An obvious lie”), or from hum (“(dialectal and slang) to cajole; delude; impose on”) + bug (“a goblin, a spectre”). In his Slang Dictionary (1864), English bibliophile and publisher John Camden Hotten (1832–1873) suggested a link to the name of the German city of Hamburg, “from which town so many false bulletins and reports came during the war in the last century”, or alternatively a derivation from ambage.
Hotten also said he had traced the earliest occurrence of the word to the title page of Ferdinando Killigrew’s book The Universal Jester (see quotations), which he dated to about 1735–1740. This dating has therefore been adopted by other dictionaries. However, the OED dates the word to about 1750, as the earliest edition of Killigrew’s work has been dated to 1754.

unk

unknown

"Let's talk first, Mr. Brown," Sergeant Murillo said. "Do you remember telling these officers you were going to sue them for false arrest?" / Bootsie Brown paused with the cookie halfway to his lips and said, "I mighta. It was a humbug arrest. That's why they let me and Axel outta jail in forty-eight hours. We was jist tryin' to have an Irish wake for good old Coleman."

2009, Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Moon: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:

I pulled the initial investigation report. I see who arrested him and I knew it was a humbug. A humbug is a bullshit arrest. No Police Officer likes to believe they exist; however sometimes it was a fact of life.

2013, Sparky McLaughlin, “‘Et Tu (Fill in Name Here) …’”, in Damned from Memory, Swedesboro, N.J.: Damned from Memory LLC, BookBaby, →ISBN:

(countable, US, crime, slang) A false arrest on trumped-up charges.


Mafia

Borrowed from Italian mafia, of uncertain origin. In the first instance, it is not clear whether the lemma in question is a Sicilian exonym or endonym, since written and oral sources on this term are scarce, the etymology remains uncertain and it's worthy of further investigation. It is possibly a regional term of the then recently established Kingdom of Italy; thus the meaning "spirit of hostility to the law" could be just derivative. The hypotheses put forward have been varied, but not very convincing from a reconstructive point of view. See Sicilian mafia for more. See, also, the Wikipedia article for more discussion of the origin of the word. Doublet of mafiya.

Somehow he managed to upset the Russian Mafia.

The Mob: any particular mafia, mentioned uniquely within the discussion's established or implicit context, usually and especially the Sicilian-Italian–Italian-American one (especially in American English) but occasionally others (e.g., the Russian one, the Japanese one).

Any other specific organized crime syndicate operating internationally in high-level organized crime; often with a modifying adjective, such as a nationality.


goodfella

From good + fella. Popularised by the US crime film GoodFellas (1990).


cat burglar

/kæt ˈbɜːɡlə/

/ˈkæt ˌbɝɡlɚ/

The police were baffled by the exploits of a cat burglar who only stole from the upper floors of high-rise apartments.

A particularly stealthy burglar, especially one who gains undetected entry through the use of agility.


footpad

en-verb

footpad (third-person singular simple present footpads, present participle footpadding, simple past and past participle footpadded)

footpads (present singular third-person)
footpadding (participle present)
footpadded (participle past)
footpadded (past)

When Mr. Kaiser was footpadded last December, the scare seemed to penetrate even the quiet town of Berkeley.

1894, The Blue and Gold - Volume 21, page 172:

Before that 'e footpadded round Covent Garden with a crew o' other masterless soldiers an' suchlike, calling 'imself "Captain Gun", as nasty a bill o' goods as ever slit your pocket or cut your throat,' Pope added, with loathing for the many thousands of defeated men who had limped home to live off the city streets which, by right and custom already belonged to established families of beggars and pickpockets, dog snatchers and cloak snitchers.

1988, Michael Talbot, To the ends of the earth, page 15:

To his first investment, Jack adds the money stolen by footpadding, all of which comes to £94 (CJ, 77).

1996, James Thompson, Models of value: eighteenth-century political economy and the novel:

(archaic) To rob travellers on the road.


detective

→ Catalan: detectiu

→ Dutch: detective

→ French: détective

→ German: Detektiv

desc

→ Greek: ντετέκτιβ (ntetéktiv), ντεντέκτιβ (ntentéktiv)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: detektiv

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: detektiv

→ Portuguese: detetive

→ Spanish: detective

→ Swedish: detektiv

The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he had to do it, and this was one of them.

1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!:

(law enforcement) A police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.


cronyism

en-noun

cronyism (countable and uncountable, plural cronyisms)

From crony (“close friend”) + -ism (suffix forming names of a tendency of action, behaviour, condition, opinion, or state belonging to a class or group of persons).

suffix

[T]he present structure of the collective bargaining agreement, combined with nepotism and cronyism and other abuses in employment and referral practices, have perpetuated the effects of the past discrimination, […]

1974 September 19, Lawrence W[arren] Pierce, United States District Judge, “Memorandum Opinion and Order”, in John R. Patterson, et al., Plaintiffs, v Newspaper and Mail Deliverers’ Union of New York and Vicinity, et al., Defendants. […], page 23a:

[Robert L.] Hagist began what he called an "18 month reform program" that included revised warehouse procedures and measures to prevent the leakages, shortages, cronyisms, and politicking attributed to the managers and clerks of the various stores.

1988, Norman H. Clark, “Booze and Politics, 1933–83”, in The Dry Years: Prohibition and Social Change in Washington, revised edition, Seattle, Wash., London: University of Washington Press, →ISBN, page 258:

If we are going to reauthorize the National Endowment, we need to see to it that the Endowment, in its procedures, are open, one. […] That there is a cessation of a long-term practice of cronyisms on the panels so that artists across the Nation have equal access to this.

1990 April 4, Dick Armey, Hearing on the Reauthorization of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, Second Session […] (Serial No. 101-78), volume 3, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 35:

[C]ommunism is predicated upon a central structure of economic command that is singularly entrusted with allocating resources and making economic decisions. Because of this centralized command structure, communist societies fall prey to the forces of cronyism and influence-peddling as commune members without economic power curry favor with commune leaders that control access to resources.

2013 April, Randall G[regory] Holcombe, Andrea M. Castillo, “Communism”, in Liberalism and Cronyism: Two Rival Political and Economic Systems, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, →ISBN, page 31:

Patronage, nepotism, cronyism, abuse of power, and criminal activity flourish, sometimes for decades, in numerous town halls, police stations, and special-purpose government agencies in the suburbs.

2015, Thomas J. Gradel, Dick Simpson, “Suburban Scandals”, in Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality, Urbana; Chicago, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 117:

Critics accuse her [von der Leyen] of serious missteps over the pandemic, the Gaza war, alleged cronyism, – and of having a high-handed manner.

2024 May 4, Simon Tisdall, “Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen, the double act that is steering the EU ever rightwards”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

(originally US, derogatory) Favouritism to friends without regard for their qualifications; especially (politics), in their appointment to political positions.

وَاسِطَة

favouritism to friends without regard for their qualifications

[T]he preacher […] was reading to them the duty of loving one another as Christians, But only particularly and exclusively were they to love one another "as Christians," that is as confederates and caballers together in a particular interest, distinct from that of the great family of mankind; […] The benefit to themselves from this Free-masonry sectarian cronyism, (for which the uninitiated world is so much obliged to them) was, to be, that […] [t]he spirit of God was to bear witness with their spirits, and to settle the matter of faith with a degree of conviction, that should render reason superfluous and inquiry unnecessary.

1829 June 26, Robert Taylor, “Characterism of Leeds”, in The Lion, volume III, number 26, London: Richard Carlile, […], →OCLC, page 813:

Our friend the Old Crony, we see, for all his connoisseurship and crony-ism, his regard for a certain piquancy of perfection in the French dress and walk, and his wish that his fair countrywomen would "take steps" after their fashion, cannot get rid of the preference in which he was brought up for the beauty of the English countenance.

1840, Leigh Hunt, “English and French Females. Their Costumes and Bearing.”, in The Seer; or, Common-places Refreshed. […], part I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 73, column 1:

She [the minister's wife] is warned against being drawn into excessive attachments, engrossing intimacies, low and gossiping cronyism, all intermeddling with tales and talebearers, with family breaches, with partisanship, and with ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

[1841], “a mother” [pseudonym], “Peculiar Duties of Wives in Various Stations of Life”, in The Young Wife; or, Hints to Married Daughters. […], London: The Religious Tract Society, →OCLC, page 123:

[H]e [William Jay] observed, that there were two things which caused religious servants to be too generally disliked. The first was their fondness for religious gossiping, or cronyism, which made them regardless of their time, &c.

1854, George Redford, John Angell James, “Part II. Supplement to the Autobiography of the Rev. William Jay.”, in George Redford, John Angell James, editors, The Autobiography of the Rev. William Jay; […], London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 223:

Pea-green Hayne was one of my most intimate friends; we occupied rooms vis à vis, and made prison life more than endurable by affectionate cronyism.

[1860], [Renton Nicholson], chapter XVIII, in The Lord Chief Baron Nicholson. An Autobiography, London: George Vickers, […], →OCLC, page 183:

And the Englishman and Irishman went off together in a state of thorough cronyism, the former imagining that he had quite taken in his companion, and entertaining no suspicion that it was rather the other way.

1869, Mortimer Collins, “Double Entanglement”, in The Ivory Gate. […], volume I, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], →OCLC, page 222:

(obsolete) The condition of being friends; friendship; also, the ability or inclination to make friends.


criminology

en-noun

criminology (countable and uncountable, plural criminologies)

"So that then begins a sort of rethinking of my idea of criminology," Weisburd said. "Like most other people, my studies were about people. I said, maybe we ought to be more concerned with places."

2019, Malcolm Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, page 283:

The study of crime and criminals, especially their behaviour.

kriminologjia

the study of crime and criminals, especially their behaviour


PD

PD (countable and uncountable, plural PDs)

police department
police department#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of police department.


CJ

And though in Dodd and Eletcher the judgment was reversed, it was to the dissatisfaction of C. J. Holt, and other judges […]

1792, Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of King's Bench: In the Eleventh and Twelfth Years of the Reign of King George the Second. [1737-1738]:

criminal justice
criminal justice#English


roundup

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-roundup.wav

(law enforcement) The similar police activity of gathering together suspects.


up the river

A reference to Sing Sing prison, which is located on the Hudson river, to the north of (and upstream from) New York City.

The former baseball player that Cincinnati idolized is being sent up the river to Ashland, Ky., to serve a prison term for cheating on his taxes.

1990 July 21, “Pete Rose: He doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame”, in Dallas Morning News, retrieved 2010-09-23:


RCMP

Canada had an international reputation for politeness. The RCMP Special Branch did not.

2020, Patrick Ness, Burn, Walker Books Ltd (2021), page 50:

Royal Canadian Mounted Police
w:Royal Canadian Mounted Police

(Canada, law enforcement) Initialism of Royal Canadian Mounted Police.


SIU

(law enforcement, Canada) Initialism of special investigation(s)/investigating unit.


bailiff

From Middle English baillif, baylyf, from Anglo-Norman and Old French bailif (plural bailis), probably from Vulgar Latin *bāiulivus (“castellan”), from Latin bāiulus (“porter; steward”), whence also bail. As a translation of foreign titles, semantic loan from French bailli, Scots bailie, Dutch baljuw, etc. Mostly replaced the role of native reeve. Doublet of bailo.

Bailiffs of Jersey and Guernsey
High Bailiff of the Isle of Man
Landvogt
bailiff

مَأْمُور

equivalent officers of the court in foreign contexts

(law enforcement) An officer of the court, particularly:

(historical, Norman term) A reeve, (specifically) the chief officer executing the decisions of any English court in the period following the Norman Conquest or executing the decisions of lower courts in the late medieval and early modern period.

(UK) A high bailiff: an officer of the county courts responsible for executing warrants and court orders, appointed by the judge and removable by the Lord Chancellor.

(UK) A bound bailiff: a deputy bailiff charged with debt collection.

(US) Any law enforcement officer charged with courtroom security and order.

teremőr

a law enforcement officer charged with courtroom security and order

process server

in role of serving processes and summonses

A huissier de justice or other foreign officer of the court acting as either a process server or as courtroom security.


ACC

assistant chief constable
assistant chief constable#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of assistant chief constable, a police rank used in Commonwealth countries.


ATF

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives)


HRT

HRT (countable and uncountable, plural HRTs)

(law enforcement) Initialism of hostage rescue team.


CSI

(India) Initialism of Computer Society of India.


PBT

PBT (countable and uncountable, plural PBTs)

(law enforcement, countable) Initialism of preliminary breath test.


DEA

When Trump announced Chronister as his pick Saturday, the president-elect said in a social media post: “As DEA Administrator, Chad will work with our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to secure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border, and SAVE LIVES.”

2024 December 3, Alejandra Jaramillo and Jack Forrest, “Trump’s pick for DEA administrator withdraws from consideration”, in CNN:

Drug Enforcement Administration
w:Drug Enforcement Administration

(US) Initialism of Drug Enforcement Administration.


syndicate

Anglicized form of French syndicat (“office of a syndic; board of syndics; trade union”) on the basis of -ate (forms nouns denoting rank or office, a group formed of people of this same office), from syndic (“syndic; representative; chief magistrate of Geneva”) + -at (suffix denoting an action or result of an action), from Medieval Latin *syndicātus, from syndicus (“representative of a corporation or town; syndic”) (from Ancient Greek σύνδικος (súndikos, “advocate for a defendant”), from σύν (sún, “beside; with”) + δίκη (díkē, “judgment; justice”)) + -ātus (suffix forming adjectives from nouns indicating the possession of a thing or a quality). By surface analysis, syndic + -ate.
Compare Italian sindacato (“syndicate; trade union; audit, control, supervision”), Occitan sendegat, Portuguese sindicato (“trade union”), Spanish sindicado, sindicato (“office of a syndic; syndicate; trade union”).

cog

Held at the estate of Mafia boss Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, NY, the meeting called by [Vito] Genovese in November 1957 brought over 100 mobsters from around the country to cement his power over the national crime syndicate.

1999, John Madinger, “Case Development”, in Confidential Informant: Law Enforcement’s Most Valuable Tool, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 178:

A group of individuals or companies formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest; a self-coordinating group.

(crime) A group of gangsters engaged in organized crime.


tax evasion

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tax evasion.wav

(taxation, criminology) The illegal reduction of paying tax, especially by making a false declaration of income etc.


APB

all-points bulletin
all-points bulletin#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of all-points bulletin.


misper

Portmanteau of missing + person
Shortening of missing person as in “missing persons report”.

‘I had my researchers check the files on all the mispers and cold cases five years either side of that date estimate, on females of that approximate age. This is what they found. Fill your boots.’ He took a large gulp of his drink. / ‘I’m impressed, you've been moving fast.’ / ‘On it like a car bonnet, mate.’

2015, Peter James, You Are Dead, New York, N.Y.: Minotaur Books, →ISBN:

(law enforcement, slang) A missing person.


bloodthirsty

en-adj

bloodthirsty (comparative bloodthirstier or more bloodthirsty, superlative bloodthirstiest or most bloodthirsty)

bloodthirstier (comparative)
more bloodthirsty (comparative)
bloodthirstiest (superlative)
most bloodthirsty (superlative)

From blood + thirsty. Cognate with West Frisian bloeddorstich (“bloodthirsty”), Dutch bloeddorstig (“bloodthirsty”), German blutdürstig (“bloodthirsty”), Danish blodtørstig (“bloodthirsty”), Swedish blodtörstig (“bloodthristy”), Norwegian blodtørstig (“bloodthirsty”).

cog

[I]t is, as I may ſo ſay, a ſavvcy Plot: and vve all knovv, moſt Reverend Fathers, that vvhat is ſavvce for a Gooſe is ſavvce for a Gander: Therefore, I ſay, as thoſe bloud-thirſty Ganders of the conſpiracy vvould have deſtroyed us Geeſe of the Senate, let us make haſte to deſtroy them, ſo I humbly move for hanging— […]

1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, Act V, scene [ii], page 61:

[…] Diodorus also relates of Caligula, predecessor to Nero, that his nurse used to moisten the nipples of her breast frequently with blood to make Caligula take the better hold of them; which, says Diodorus, was the cause that made him so blood-thirsty and cruel all his life-time after, that he not only committed frequent murder by his own hand, but likewise wished that all human kind wore but one neck that he might have the pleasure to cut it off.

1711 December 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, December 12, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 246; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 229:

The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and blood-thirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.

1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 16:

The genuine "bloodhound" is not, naturally, the cruel, bloodthirsty animal he is generally supposed to be; nor is he the only dog that will hunt men. Like all pure hounds, he is mild, loving, and kind, and will hunt any game for which he is trained; […]

1870 March 12, “Bloodhounds”, in Oliver Optic [pseudonym; William Taylor Adams], editor, Our Boys and Girls: Oliver Optic’s Magazine, volume VII, number 167, Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard, publishers; […], →OCLC, page 169, column 2:

The slasher narrative is as simple as a knife in the head: Some tragic event creates a killer who then seeks bloodthirsty revenge for that primal trauma, and audiences hoot and cringe in equal measure as characters lose their lives one by one, often in unexpected or inventive ways, until a resourceful “Final Girl” manages to defeat the monster.

2017 October 27, Alex McLevy, “Making a Killing: The Brief Life and Bloody Death of the Post-Scream Slasher Revival”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-03-05:

Thirsty for blood: inexorably violent or eager for bloodshed; murderous.


trooper

From troop + -er, from French troupe. The sense of “one who endures adversity” comes from trouper (“member of an acting troupe”) but through assimilation with the sense of “soldier” has come to be usually spelled “trooper”.

(US, law enforcement) Ellipsis of state trooper.

(Australia, law enforcement) A mounted policeman.


suicide bomber

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-suicide bomber.wav

One who carries explosives on his or her body or in a vehicle and intends to detonate them (dying in the process) to kill people and inflict widespread damage, usually motivated by a political or religious cause.

камика́дзе m (kamikádze, literally “kamikaze”)


floater

From float + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

paikanvaihtaja

person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role

kelluva esine

thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid

leijuri

thing which moves from place to place, as if floating

A dock worker saw him floating against a dock pier and called the police. Condition of the body they thought a floater that had been hit by a boat and cut by the prop.

2017 September 18, E. J. Stauffer, chapter 3, in The Drowning, Bloomington, Ind.: Archway Publishing, →ISBN:

A person who physically floats in a gas or liquid.

(law enforcement, slang) A corpse floating in a body of water.


bing

en-noun

bing (countable and uncountable, plural bings)

From Middle English bing, binge, benge (also as Middle English byngger, bengere (“grain bin, hopper”)), from Old Norse bingr (“heap of corn; bed; bolster”), cognate with Scots bing, Swedish binge (“heap”), Danish bing (“bin; box; compartment”).
Compare also Scottish Gaelic binnean meaning a small hill or slag heap.

der

Solitary confinement
solitary confinement

(prison slang, with "the") Solitary confinement


vig

en-noun

vig (countable and uncountable, plural vigs)

Clipping of vigorish, from Yiddish וויגריש (vigrish), from Russian вы́игрыш (výigryš, “winnings”).

1973, Martin Scorsese, Mardik Martin (screenplay), Mean Streets, quoted in 2009, Ellis Cashmore, Martin Scorsese's America, page 118,
“You charged a guy from the neighborhood $1800 vig?” he asks incredulously (“vig” is short for vigorish, meaning a rate of interest from a loan from an illegal moneylender).

The guy was probably professional muscle, a leg breaker who collects vig for a loan shark. (Vig is a mob term for interest on loans to a loan shark.)

2005, F. P. Lione, The Crossroads (Midtown Blue Book; 2), page 100:

"Look, I know I owe you and I know I'm late but I'm good for it. I am. In fact I'll pay you triple what I owe. Triple! Plus the missing vigs, but I need some help first."

2009, Davinia Bostick, The Match, →ISBN, page 91:

(US slang, crime) Synonym of vigorish (“interest from a loan, as from a loan shark”)


B&E

breaking and entering
breaking and entering#English

Initialism of breaking and entering; burglary in general.


IAD

(law enforcement) internal affairs department


Named after section 187 of the California Penal Code, which defines the offense of murder.

A code one-eight-seven on Jefferson one-four-eight-nine. Corner store—7-Eleven." A 187 was a homicide, Jefferson, the other side of town. ...

1992, Ian Slater, WW III: Warshot, page 148:

[…] and Snoop Dogg blatantly rapped about doing "187 on an undercover cop" on [….]

2003, Mark Anthony Neal, Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation, page 164:

Paco came across a wall that, in the large block letters of local Hispanic gang graffiti, spelled out “187 Domingo.” This was the ultimate threat for Paco [….]

2004, Malcolm W. Klein, Gang Cop: The Words and Ways of Officer Paco Domingo, page 131:

Perp at this address is a possible One-eight-seven P. Request a unit respond Code Three." The RTO came back immediately and put out the call division-wide.

2004, Stephen J. Cannell, Vertical Coffin, page 256:

Respond to a one-eight-seven at nine-eight-six Cove Road North," the dispatcher continued in her heavy southern drawl. "10-4... En route.[….]

2004, Cash Pawley, Pray for Death, page 21:

(US) Police code for murder, in the State of California.


panopticon

panopticon (plural panopticons or panoptica)

From Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ὀπτικός (optikós, “visible”). Coined by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1787.


detain

en-verb

detain (third-person singular simple present detains, present participle detaining, simple past and past participle detained)

detains (present singular third-person)
detaining (participle present)
detained (participle past)
detained (past)

From Old French detenir. Cognate with Italian detenere, Portuguese deter, Romanian deține, and Spanish detener.

In April of 2009, however, the disease was found to suddenly no longer be appearing in newly-hatched chickens, and, upon review, it was discovered that Dr. Wildcat had modified 6002 without authorization, removing the disease from the genome. She's detained and questioned by Muller, and, even though she tries to lie that she didn't do anything, they have footage of her ascending the tree on her own.

2021 August 16, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-6002 - All Creatures Great and Small” (19:06 from the start), in The Exploring Series, archived from the original on 2023-01-10:

(transitive, law enforcement) To put under custody.


plutocracy

en-noun

plutocracy (countable and uncountable, plural plutocracies)

From Ancient Greek πλουτοκρατία (ploutokratía, “rule of the wealthy”), from πλουτοκρατέω (ploutokratéō, “I rule through wealth”), from πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “wealth”) + κρατέω (kratéō, “I rule”) (from κράτος (krátos, “power”, “might”)).

der

πλουτοκρατία

Plutocracy, which is virtually supreme to-day, is to be no less condemned ; for it is not only not just, bit is nearly as detrimental to the race at large as absolute socialism would be, if adopted […]

1897, anonymous author, The Revolutionary Tendencies of the Age: Their Cause and Their Ultimate Aim, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, page 119:

Modernity is not democracy; machinery is not democracy; the surrender of everything to trade and commerce is not democracy. Capitalism is not democracy; and is admittedly, by trend and savour, rather against democracy. Plutocracy by definition is not democracy. But all these modern things forced themselves into the world at about the time, or shortly after the time, when great idealists like Rousseau and Jefferson happened to have been thinking about the democratic ideal of democracy.

1933, G. K. Chesterton, “On Industrialism”, in All I Survey:

“There are three big classes in society. First comes the Plutocracy, which is composed of wealthy bankers, railway magnates, corporation directors, and trust magnates. Second, is the middle class, your class, gentlemen, which is composed of farmers, merchants, small manufacturers, and professional men. And third and last comes my class, the proletariat, which is composed of the wage-workers.

1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 9, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:

There, indeed, he must consent to be the puppet and plaything of plutocracy enthroned on machinery, to have his ears assaulted by every variety of beastly sound that the ingenuity of modern civilization can devise, and his peace of mind shattered by the continual necessity under which he finds himself of performing bodily convolutions that would do credit to a professional gymnast.

1926, C. E. M. Joad, The Babbitt Warren, London: Trubner & Co, page 17:

The sea, most inhuman of elements, met in perfect friendship here with the soft and pleasure-loving side of man; and the mixed architecture of a bygone plutocracy reconciled me to the experiments of today.

1952 May, George Santayana, “I Like to Be a Stranger”, in The Atlantic:

Her piece painted him as an enigmatic Jay Gatsby type, a boy from a middle-class family in Brooklyn who had scaled the rungs of the plutocracy, though no one could quite figure out how he made his money.

2019 July 8, Michelle Goldberg, “Jeffrey Epstein Is the Ultimate Symbol of Plutocratic Rot”, in New York Times:


black and white

en-noun

black and white (plural black and whites)

The police car sense reflects a traditional livery scheme for such cars.

[T]he news bunny ran up to him, saying, "Officer, did you have trouble catching up with Batman? Was it an exciting chase?" The surfer cop struck a semi-heroic pose for the camera and said, "Weak sauce." Then he quickly walked Batman to the black-and-white, where he was put into the backseat.

2006, Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Station […], New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 237:

(US, slang, law enforcement) A police patrol car.


jaywalk

en-verb

jaywalk (third-person singular simple present jaywalks, present participle jaywalking, simple past and past participle jaywalked)

jaywalks (present singular third-person)
jaywalking (participle present)
jaywalked (participle past)
jaywalked (past)

Back-formation from jaywalker. Analyzable as jay (“a stupid person”) + walk.

(chiefly US, law, automotive, transitive, intransitive) To behave as a jaywalker; to violate pedestrian traffic regulations by crossing a street away from a designated crossing or to walk in the part of the street intended for vehicles rather than on the sidewalk.

eine Straße an verbotener Stelle überqueren

atravessar no meio da rua

literally: to cross in the middle of the street

переходи́ть доро́гу в неполо́женном ме́сте

but see oförsiktig fotgängare and vårdslös fotgängare.


murk

en-adj

murk (comparative murker, superlative murkest)

murker (comparative)
murkest (superlative)

From Middle English merke, mirke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“dark, gloomy, evil”) and Old Norse myrkr (“dark, murky”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkuz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”). Cognate Danish mørk (“dark”), Norwegian mørk (“dark”), Swedish mörk (“dark”), Icelandic myrkur (“dark”), as also Albanian murg (“dark”), Proto-Slavic *morkъ (“darkness”), Lithuanian márgas (“multicolored”), Ancient Greek ἀμορβός (amorbós, “dark”).

der

He cannot see through the mantle murk.

1835, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay:


murk

From Middle English mirke, merke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“darkness, gloom”) and Old Norse myrkr (“darkness, gloom”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkwą, *mirkwiz (“darkness”), Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).

[…]in murk and occidental damp

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

O great star disappear’d—O the black murk that hides the star!

1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:

Darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment.

мрак

darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment


murk

en-verb

murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)

murks (present singular third-person)
murking (participle present)
murked (participle past)
murked (past)

Possibly an alteration of merc, from clipping of mercenary.

cause we be murkin from the boogie
And shittin on the crowds
'cause they jive fakin woody.

That's why he was able to catch Crush out there sleeping and why he murked him before he could ask him any questions.

He clowned Sticks, and Sticks murked him for no reason. And I don't know for sure, but I think he murked Trail.

2011, Treasure Hernandez, Baltimore Chronicles, volume 2:

In truth, there are Easter eggs planted in just about every frame of Ready Player One, which never misses an opportunity to insert a recognizable character (hey, is that Jason Voorhees getting merked during the film’s first-person shooter level?) or toss a sop to the faithful.

2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-05-31:

Yas (Vivian Oparah): And where is this, uh, summit of doom taking place?
Dom (David Jonsson): Il Giardino. There. Used to be "our" place.
Yas: No. Absolutely not. Text her, you can't make it. We'll go to Laser Quest, merk some eight-year-olds.

2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane:

(African-American Vernacular, MLE) To murder or seriously injure.


highway robbery

en-noun

highway robbery (countable and uncountable, plural highway robberies)

Compare Old English weġrēaf (“highway robbery”, literally “road-theft”).

cog

(historical, literal) The act of robbing a traveler on a public road.


trophy

→ Japanese: トロフィー (torofī)

→ Korean: 트로피 (teuropi)

→ Malayalam: ട്രോഫി (ṭrōphi)

From Middle French trophée, from Latin trophaeum (“a sign of victory, a monument”), tropaeum, from Ancient Greek τρόπαιον (trópaion, “monument of an enemy's defeat”), from neuter of τροπαῖος (tropaîos, “of defeat”), from τροπή (tropḗ, “a rout, a turning of an enemy”).

трафе́й

object taken by a hunter or conqueror of their success

(criminology, by extension) An object taken by a serial killer or rapist as a memento of the crime.


master key

(law enforcement, slang) A shotgun shell designed for breaching doors.


stingray

The device mimics a cell phone tower and gets the phone to connect to it. […] Once a signal is found, the stingray measures its strength and can provide a general location on the map.

2014, Catherine Nolan, Ashley M. Wilson, JD, The Audacity to Spy: How Government, Business, and Hackers Rob Us of Privacy, Technics Publications, →ISBN, page 74:

(US law enforcement) A device that simulates a cell tower, used to intercept cell phone communications.


serial killer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-serial killer.wav

A person who commits multiple (more than two) murders, especially similar ones with no obvious motive over a period of time with a "cooling-off" period between each murder.


steamer

From steam + -er. The steamer duck or steamer (sense 6.2) is apparently named for its resemblance to a paddle steamer when swimming rapidly.

(British, crime, slang) A member of a youth gang who engages in steaming (robbing and escaping in a large group).


arson

en-noun

arson (usually uncountable, plural arsons)

From Anglo-Norman and Old French arson, from the verb ardoir, from Latin ardeō (“to burn”). Compare ardent.

Arson, like we thought. three punks doused a car, lit it, and took off.

2006, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Killer Smile, Part two, p.34:

The crime of deliberately starting a fire with intent to cause damage.


speed camera

A roadside camera, triggered by a speeding vehicle, that takes a photograph of the offending vehicle and records its speed.

fotovogn

operated by a police officer in a parked van

stærekasse

automatic camera in a permanent location


plod

plod (usually uncountable, plural plods)

(UK, mildly derogatory, uncountable, usually with "the") the police, police officers


lineup

Before viewing the lineup, each witness should be required to give to the officer in charge of the lineup a written description of the perpetrator of the crime.

1999, John N. Ferdico, Criminal Procedure for the Criminal Justice Professional, page 498:

This innocent suspect is placed in a lineup with five fillers who look similar to that innocent suspect. Given this scenario, one may ask How many people are in the lineup because they fit the description of the perpetrator?

2007, Jack R. Greene, The Encyclopedia of Police Science, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 493:

Foster was placed in a three-man lineup for viewing by the only witness (the manager of the office). Foster was about 6 feet tall, whereas the other two men in the lineup were about 5 feet 6 inches tall.

2007, Thomas J. Gardner, Terry M. Anderson, Criminal Evidence: Principles and Cases, page 264:

(US, law and law enforcement) a physical or photographic queue of people allegedly involved in a crime, allowing a witness to identify them


criminalization

criminalization (countable and uncountable, plural criminalizations)

/ˌkɹɪmɪnəlaɪzˈeɪʃən/

From criminal + -ization or criminalize + -ation.

And of course, s/m players who participate in breath play will also be more vulnerable to criminalization under such a new law.

2014, Ummni Khan, Vicarious Kinks: S/M in the Socio-Legal Imaginary, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN:

The act of making a previously legal activity illegal, the act of making something a criminal offence.


foul play

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-foul play.wav

"I think there's been foul play," said Poole, hoarsely.

1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

An autopsy, pending a toxicology report, would determine the cause of death, the Los Angeles county medical examiner said. Foul play was not suspected, said Cap Scot Williams, who leads the city’s police robbery homicide division that is investigating Perry’s death.

2023 October 30, Sian Cain, “Friends stars release statement after death of Matthew Perry: ‘We were more than just castmates’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Unfair, unethical, or criminal behavior, especially of a malicious or violent nature.


decriminalization

the decriminalization of all plant-based psychedelics

Some opponents also said federal decriminalization would contribute to more death and injury from impaired drivers using marijuana.

2020 April 12, Deirdre Walsh, “House Approves Decriminalizing Marijuana; Bill To Stall In Senate”, in NPR:

The act of making an activity or substance no longer criminalized (no longer a crime, subject to criminal penalties, to perform or possess). (Compare legalization, which often implies regulation.)


LEO

I got the impression he’d been in the military somewhere in his past. But then at least a third of all LEOs were estimated to be veterans.

2022, Ben Aaronovitch, Winter’s Gifts, Orion Fiction, page 62:


burglar alarm

The loud warning signal produced by a burglar alarm.


whoosh

onomatopoeic

imitative


takedown

(slang) A taking down: the arrest of a suspect by a police officer.

polizeiliche Festnahme

a taking down: the arrest of a suspect by a police officer

Takedown (grappling) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

(martial arts) A taking down: an act of bringing one's opponent to the ground by grabbing one or both legs and applying a rearward bending moment.

The DMCA also gives the targets of notice-and-takedown complaints a limited opportunity to have access to their materials restored.

2001, Charles H. Kennedy, An introduction to U.S. telecommunications law:

Enforced removal of material from a website, etc.


bandit

en-noun

bandit (plural bandits or (archaic) banditti)

bandits (plural)
banditti (archaic plural)

Borrowed from Italian bandito (“outlawed”), a derivative of Italian bandire (“to ban”), from Late Latin bandīre, an alteration (due to Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍅𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bandwjan, “to signal”)) of Late Latin bannīre (“to ban”), from Frankish *bannan (“to ban”). Doublet of bandito.


bluebottle

* blue + bottle From resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles.
* (police officer): From the colour of the uniform.

Batemans Bay, New South Wales
bluebottle

A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.


scofflaw

From scoff + law. Coined simultaneously by Mr Henry Irving Dale and Miss Kate L. Butler for a contest held in Boston in 1923 in which a word for "a lawless drinker of illegally made or illegally obtained liquor" was sought during the Prohibition era.

The scofflaw entered the scoflsloon. He leaned an elbow on the scoffbar and rested a foot on the scoffrail.
 'Waddle'y' have?" said the scoffbartender.
 "A little tea," said the scofflaw.

If we are to scour out the scofflaws, we must first remove those particular laws at which nearly everybody scoffs.

Within six months, with the full cooperation of police throughout the state, the scofflaw rate was down to 22 per cent.

1967, Police: The Journal Covering the Professional Interests of All Law Enforcement Personnel, volumes 12-13:

At that time, appellant was informed that because there were unpaid tickets in the amount of $2,725.00, his Datsun had been declared a "scofflaw" car.

2001: 10th International Conference on High-Occupancy Vehicle Systems: Compendium of Technical Papers
The signage will make it clear that if a motorist is an HOV scofflaw (i.e., violator of the vehicle code driving in the HOV-Only zone) that they will be subject to HOV violation fine of at least $271.

Unrepentant scofflaw on the lam
Layin' waste to all the best-laid plans

2001, J. G. Thirlwell (lyrics and music), “Heuldoch 7B”, in Flow, performed by Foetus:

Given Montana's continued, fretful association with various scofflaw organizations and its unwanted reputation as a place without speed limits or other boundaries on personal behavior, we might do well to acknowledge the excesses and inherent abuse of power carried out by men who for too many years refused to bow to the police and courts and rule of law.

2013: A Decent, Orderly Lynching: The Montana Vigilantes by Frederick Allen (University of Oklahoma Press)

(US) One who habitually violates minor laws or fails to answer trivial court summonses (such as parking tickets).


drug dealer

One who illegally sells recreational drugs.


black widow

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-black widow.wav

Any of several species of venomous and potentially deadly spiders, particularly Latrodectus spp..


rustle

rustle The rustle of paper (canonical)
rustles (plural)

From Middle English rustelen, russelen, of uncertain origin, but probably from Old English hrūxlian, hristlan, hrystlan, hristlian (“to make a noise”). Compare also Scots reesle (“to crackle; rattle; rustle”), West Frisian risselje, Dutch ritselen (“to rustle”), Afrikaans ritsel (“to rustle”), German rascheln (“to rustle”).

cog

He heard the silken rustle of a dressing-gown being drawn on.

1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus:

A soft crackling sound similar to the movement of dry leaves.


rustle

en-verb

rustle (third-person singular simple present rustles, present participle rustling, simple past and past participle rustled)

rustles (present singular third-person)
rustling (participle present)
rustled (participle past)
rustled (past)

The next day at three o'clock we were again at the door, and the footmen as before; we heard the silk dress rustle, and the lady came down the steps and in an imperious voice, she said, "York, you must put those horses' heads higher, they are not fit to be seen."

[1877], Anna Sewell, “Earlshall”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part II, page 104:

(ergative) To move (something) with a soft crackling sound.

шумоля

to move (something) with a soft crackling sound

When at last the lumber was piled again in its rightful place, and the boxes of food had been returned to the shelter from which they had been stolen, the two friends rustled a meal, and then set off on horseback […]

1921, William M. McCoy, The Valley of the Sun, page 48:

(transitive) To make or obtain in a lively, energetic way.


poach

poach (third-person singular simple present poaches, present participle poaching, simple past and past participle poached)

poaches (present singular third-person)
poaching (participle present)
poached (participle past)
poached (past)

From Old French pocher, pochier (“to trample, poach into”). Doublet of poke.

(transitive, intransitive) To trespass on another's property to take fish or game.


fat cat

The phrase was first used in the 1920s in the United States to describe rich political donors.
By the middle of the 20th century, the term was being applied more widely to any wealthy individual.

A staggering 57% of American workers believe there is a very real chance they will be unemployed in the next 5 to 7 years. But what does that matter to a bloated millionaire fat-cat like you?

1997, John Brancato and Michael Ferris, The Game (motion picture), Daniel Schorr (actor):

For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left train operators to 'take the heat' - which they dutifully did, fearful of speaking up and 'biting the hand that feeds'.

2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3:

In America, where we moralize our money and monetize our morals, fat cats who go bust tend to be viewed as cautionary figures, singular exemplars of malfeasance, not routine casualties of the fickle system that exalted them in the first place.

2020 October 23, Walter Kirn, “The Cautionary Tale of Adam Neumann and WeWork”, in New York Times:

(slang, derogatory) Any affluent person who is perceived to have profited from the labor of others; and/or not to care about those of lesser means.

剝削者 /剥削者

affluent person who is perceived to have profited from the labour of others


AFP

(Australia, law enforcement) Initialism of Australian Federal Police.


dipper

desc

→ Kashubian: dyper (Canada, United States)

From Middle English dippere; equivalent to dip + -er.

It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed any warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers, whizzers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere in the crowds, in the underground, on railway trains […]

1976, Michael Harrison, Beyond Baker Street: A Sherlockian Anthology, page 117:


SAPOL

For example, the SAPOL Police Security Services Division (a service designed to act in competition with private providers) mentions, in its Strategic Plan 1998-2003, its similarity with SAPOL as an advantage.

2003, Canberra Law Review, volumes 7-8, page 112:

When information is provided to SAPOL and it is considered by the officer receiving the information that it is necessary that the identity of the informant and the information be kept confidential, it is the practice of SAPOL officers to give an assurance of confidentiality.

2003, South Australian Supreme Court, The South Australian State Reports, volume 87, page 482:

The data were acquired from sworn serving SAPOL police officers. To collect data for this study a submission was made to SAPOL′s Officer in Charge of Policy and Project Services.

2005, Laurence J. Alison, The Forensic Psychologist′s Casebook, page 126:

South Australia Police
w:South Australia Police

(Australia, law enforcement) Abbreviation of South Australia Police..


plonk

Chris and that plonk had better be flushing the scum out.

(countable, derogatory, UK, Ireland, law enforcement slang) A female police constable.


thieving

en-noun

thieving (usually uncountable, plural thievings)

"There's nothing to spend your thievings on up here."


gangster

From gang + -ster. First attested in 1884.

A member of a professional criminal organization (in organized crime): a racketeer.


racketeer

/ˌɹækɪˈtɪə(ɹ)/

One who commits crimes (especially fraud, bribery, loansharking, extortion etc.) to aid in running a shady or illegal business.


pickpocket

Coordinate term: putpocket

One who steals from the pocket of a passerby, usually by sleight of hand.

xhepist

one who steals from the pocket of a passerby


peacekeeper

officer of the peace
officer of the peace

(Canada, law enforcement) An officer of the peace (police officer) in a force run by a Canadian aboriginal community.


pillage

en-verb

pillage (third-person singular simple present pillages, present participle pillaging, simple past and past participle pillaged)

pillages (present singular third-person)
pillaging (participle present)
pillaged (participle past)
pillaged (past)

From Old French pillage, from piller (“plunder”), from an unattested meaning of Late Latin piliō, probably a figurative use of Latin pilō (“I remove (hair)”), from pilus (“hair”).

1911, Sabine Baring-Gould, Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe, Chapter VI: Cliff Castles—Continued,
Archibald V. (1361-1397) was Count of Perigord. He was nominally under the lilies [France], but he pillaged indiscriminately in his county.

(transitive, intransitive) To loot or plunder by force, especially in time of war.


MOS

"We have an MOS down," the dispatcher said.

(law enforcement) Initialism of member of the service.


banana republic

en-noun

banana republic (plural banana republics)

Coined by American author O. Henry in 1901 in his short story Money Maze, set in the fictional "Anchuria", which was based on his 1896–97 stay in Honduras.

coin

At that time we had a treaty with about every foreign country except Belgium, and that banana republic, Anchuria.

1901 May, O. Henry, “Money Maze”, in Ainslee's Magazine, volume vii, number 4, New York, page 305:

The banana workers of this former banana republic were exceptionally well organized and effective in their demands from the very beginning of the revolution.

2001, Cindy Forster, The Time of Freedom: Campesino Workers in Guatemala's October Revolution, University of Pittsburgh Press, →ISBN, page 117:

The McCanns, it is hinted and sometimes expressed explicitly, cannot possibly be treated fairly under this inadequate Portuguese system. There is a touch of arrogant xenophobia here, as if Portugal was some backward banana republic […]

2007 September 10, Marcel Berlins, “Media have rushed to judge Portuguese police”, in The Guardian:

(politics, idiomatic, derogatory) A small country, especially one in Central America or the West Indies, that is dependent on a single export commodity (traditionally bananas) and that has a corrupt, dictatorial government.


Mirandize

en-verb

Mirandize (third-person singular simple present Mirandizes, present participle Mirandizing, simple past and past participle Mirandized)

Mirandizes (present singular third-person)
Mirandizing (participle present)
Mirandized (participle past)
Mirandized (past)

From Miranda + -ize. The former refers to the US Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona.

1981. Television program Hill Street Blues, Season 1, Episode 7, "Film At Eleven".
Lt. Furillo: Be sure to Mirandize them, Ray.

[1997. New York State Bar Journal, "Volume 69"
We credit Judge John G. Gabbert of California with the first reported usage of "Mirandize" […] ]

[2007. Anu Garg, "The dord, the diglet, and an avocado or two"
To mirandize is to advise people under arrest of their legal rights, such as the right to remain silent under questioning, the right to legal counsel, etc.]

2012. Garrett Graff, "The Threat Matrix"
There was also a fierce debate over whether to Mirandize the detainees immediately. “You wouldn't Mirandize an American in this situation,” Knowles argued with Justice Department officials.

(transitive, US, law enforcement) To inform someone who has been arrested of their constitutional rights.


composite

Borrowed from Middle French composite, from Latin compositus, past participle of compōnō (“put together”). Doublet of compost and compote.

(chiefly law enforcement) A drawing, photograph, etc. that combines several separate pictures or images.


wanted

en-adj

wanted (comparative more wanted, superlative most wanted)

more wanted (comparative)
most wanted (superlative)

(law enforcement) Subject to immediate detainment by law enforcement authorities on sight.


fish tank

I sprinkled little flakes into the fish tank for the guppies to eat.

A container, usually made out of glass or acrylic, specifically designed for holding water and marine life.

魚缸 /鱼缸

container designed for holding water and marine life


lawman

From Middle English laweman, laȝaman (as a man's name, Laȝamon, Layamon), from Old English lahmann, borrowed from Old Norse lǫgmaðr. In present use as a law-enforcement officer, law + -man.

(law, historical) One of 12 magistrates in certain Danish boroughs of England empowered with soc and sac over their own households.


bootleg

en-verb

bootleg (third-person singular simple present bootlegs, present participle bootlegging, simple past and past participle bootlegged)

bootlegs (present singular third-person)
bootlegging (participle present)
bootlegged (participle past)
bootlegged (past)

From boot + leg. Originally a nickname given to smugglers in King George III's reign, derived from the smugglers' custom of hiding packages of valuables in their large sea-boots when dodging the king's coastguardsmen.

In the 1930s, Grandpa used to bootleg to make ends meet.

In the 1930s, Grandpa used to bootleg whiskey from a still hidden in the backwoods.

(transitive, intransitive) To engage in bootlegging.

(chiefly US, transitive, intransitive) To make, transport and/or sell illegal alcoholic liquor.

trokata

to make, transport and/or sell illegal alcoholic liquor

In the 1990s, Grandpa used to bootleg under some sort of Robin-Hood-esque notion.

In the 1990s, Grandpa used to bootleg Windows CD-ROMs.

(transitive, intransitive) To make, transport and/or sell an illegal version or copy of a copyrighted product.

raubkopieren

to make, transport and/or sell an illegal version or copy of a copyright product


bootleg

An illegally produced, transported or sold product; contraband.

contraban

an illegally produced, transported or sold product; contraband

(music) A remix or mashup that is a combination of two songs but that is not authorized and audited for copyright use; primarily in the electronic music scene.


murder one

Murder in the first degree
murder in the first degree#English

(US, colloquial) Murder in the first degree.


theftable

First recorded use in the plays of Webster circa 1580; especially apropos the virtue of a Lady: "her very soul and that other tenderness is there and theftable for any knave."


Old Bill

(British, slang, law enforcement) A police officer.


biblioklept

From biblio- (“book”) + Ancient Greek κλέπτης (kléptēs, “thief”).

der

Thus Libri, who was the greatest of Biblioklepts, rescued many of the books he stole from dirt and misuse, and had them bound royally in purple and scarlet.

1880 October 23, “The Book-Stealer”, in Saturday Review, volume 50, number 1304, London: John W. Parker and Son, page 510:

He loved to walk through his library, stopping before this or that special item; and, because there were biblioklepts even among the humanists in the papal employ, he kept the most precious manuscripts for greater safety in his own bedroom.

1944, Douglas Rigby, Elizabeth Rigby, Lock, Stock and Barrel: The Story of Collecting, Philadelphia, P.A. [and others]: J. B. Lippincott Company, page 177:

If the book's authentic, it's a national treasure! A historic find! I shouldn't wonder you'd feel a bit uncomfortable having it in your library at home in the Orchard. It's worth an absolute fortune. Every biblioklept in Britain will be bashing in the panes of your French doors.

1999, Julie Wallin Kaewert, Untitled: A Booklover's Mystery:, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 28:

That thief was Samuel Raynor Dupree, a novice accompanied by more experienced biblioklepts he knew only as Paul and Swede.

2013 June 28, Carolyn Kellogg, “Throwing the book at 'Thieves of Book Row'”, in Los Angeles Times, archived from the original on 2022-06-29:


murderous

en-adj

murderous (comparative more murderous, superlative most murderous)

more murderous (comparative)
most murderous (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-murderous.wav

From murder + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns denoting possession or presence of a quality).

suffix

murderous behaviour

She gave me a murderous look.

Is any man loth to leave his priſon? or to remove his dwelling from cruel enemies? or to ſcape the hands of murderous robbers? Do we take the world indeed for our priſon? our cruel, ſpoyling, murderous foe? and yet we are loth to leave it?

1659, Richard Baxter, “Reproving Our Unwillingness to Die”, in The Saints Everlasting Rest: Or, A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in Glory. […], 8th edition, London: […] Thomas Underhill and Francis Tyton, […], →OCLC, part IV, section V, page 603:

De Salez her Husband ſtriving and ſtrugling for life againſt the pangs of death; fear and haſt (contrary to her intent and mind) had ſo made his murtherous wifes hand ſhake and tremble, as ſhe did not ſo fully cut his throat-bole, but he could yet both cry and groan, which he did very mournfully, and which indeed was ſoon over-heard by a man and a maid-ſervant of his, […]

1662, John Reynolds, “History XI”, in The Triumphs of Gods Revenge against the Crying and Execrable Sin of Murther. […] Book III, London: […] A. M. for William Lee, […], →OCLC, page 152:

Adam alſo was the High Prieſt, and received Authority from God, to teach the ſucceeding Generations of Men how to worſhip God, and what Sacrifices were to be offered by Cain and Abel, and all Poſterity. By which Sacrifices were brought into all Nations, to apply the Blood of the Lamb, ſlain from the foundation of the World, in the unalterable Purpoſes of God, to the Conſciences of all Men for the Remiſſion of their Sins, and to Excommunicate murderous Cain from the preſence of the Lord, […]

1711, Obedience to Civil Government Clearly Stated: […], London: […] George Strahan, […], →OCLC, page 34:

Of a person: intending or likely to commit murder; bloodthirsty, homicidal.

قَتُول

likely to commit murder — see also homicidal


jailbird

From jail + bird, circa 1600. Compare gallows bird.

у́рка

criminal slang; opposed to political prisoner


clink

From the Clink prison in Southwark, London, itself presumably named after sound of doors being bolted or chains rattling.

If he keeps doing things like that, he’s sure to end up in the clink.


nepotism

en-noun

nepotism (countable and uncountable, plural nepotisms)

Borrowed from French népotisme, from Italian nepotismo, from Latin nepōs (“nephew”), a reference to the practice of popes appointing relatives (most often nephews) as cardinals during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Nepotism can get you very far in the world if you've got the right connections.

Now retailers even demand deslotting or failure fees, a penalty for trial products that fail to meet their sales objectives. The struggle over display space heavily favors the incumbents and encourages what might be called brand nepotism.

1989, Report on Business Magazine, volume 6, numbers 1-6, page 100:

Mr Chen - a member of the national politburo as well as the Shanghai boss - is accused of nepotism and corruption on a grand scale: protecting political allies, granting preferment to his family and looting Shanghai's pension fund.

2006 September 27, “China airbrushes Chen”, in Financial Times:

The favoring of relatives (most strictly) or also personal friends (more broadly) because of their relationship rather than because of their abilities.

nepotizëm

favoring of relatives or personal friends


hush money

The scandal was even greater when it was announced that hush money had been paid to keep the faulty products unannounced.

He holds, I am given to understand, a small official appointment in the colony. If it were known that he had received hush money, he would be ruined.

1854, James A. Maitland, chapter XXIX, in The Cabin Boy's Story, Garrett & Co., page 297:

Is paying hush money a crime? In most cases, the answer is no. Hush-money agreements, otherwise known as nondisclosure agreements, have long been used by companies and private individuals to avoid litigation and keep embarrassing information confidential.

2023 April 4, Michael Rothfeld, “Private or Political? Charges Over Hush Money Hinge on Payment’s Purpose”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Lawyers defending Mr. Trump, who denies he had sex with her, will likely argue that his employees were responsible for the paper trail that falsely described the reimbursement of the hush money as legal fees for Mr. Cohen.

2024 April 21, Michael Rothfeld, “Tracing the Trail of Hush-Money Deals That Led to Trump’s Prosecution”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A bribe to maintain secrecy (to prevent bad publicity or to prevent the discovery of a crime).


gunman

"I've known a heap of gun fighters in my day. An' Jean Isbel don't ran true to class. Shore there never was a gunman who'd risk cripplin' his right hand by sluggin' anybody."

1921, Zane Grey, chapter 5, in To The Last Man:

A criminal armed with a gun, especially a professional killer.


suttee

suttee (countable and uncountable, plural suttees)

From Sanskrit सती (satī́, “good and virtuous or faithful wife”), from सत् (sát, “true, good, right etc.”). In English usage since 1786. Doublet of sin.

uder

(historical, Hinduism) The traditional custom of a Hindu woman giving herself up to be cremated on her husband’s funeral pyre as a sign of her devotion.


blind pig

The Web address isn't officially registered, it's a blind pig.

2017, Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner, page 197:

(Internet) A Web address on the Deep Web that piggybacks on a public domain but is not visible to the system.


Established in the United Kingdom as the first emergency service number in the world, initially chosen because of its suitability at a time of rotary-dial telephones.

I don't know why they couldn't just keep it as it was! How hard is it to remember 911?
You mean 999...
I mean 999!
That's the American one!
Yeah!

2006 Feb. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 2

When you call 999 in the UK, the operator usually answers the phone with "Emergency. Which service?"

The telephone number for emergency services in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Burma, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Sudan, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Dominica, Kiribati, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, and the Seychelles.

三條九 /三条九 (saam¹ tiu⁴ gau², literally “triple nine”)

The telephone number for law enforcement in Singapore, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Eswatini, Botswana, Tanzania, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago.


(UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, colloquial, metonymically) Emergency services; emergency service personnel.


mug shot

Originally American; compound of mug (“face”) + shot (“snapshot”). Compare mug (“portrait”).

All Summer Johnny was Prince of the penny arcade, arms around me on the tilt-a-whirl, mug-shot grins in the quarter photo booth, twanging his guitar for street kids on the hill who scored baggies of hashish and Panama Red.

2002, Carolyne Wright, Greatest Hits 1975-2001, page 32:

The buddy list has a bunch of visual status clues. Your buddy may have included a mug shot, perhaps through Photo Booth.

2006 October 2, Edward C. Baig, Macs For Dummies, page 204:

All these parameters of the series (the mug shot, the means of mechanical reproduction, the desirability of the outlawed, the reversal of law and desire and even the photo booth) are unmistakably present in Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers.

2008, Johanne Lamoureux, PRECARIOUS VISUALITIES New Perspectives on Identification in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture: Ending Myths and the Catholic Outing of Andy Warhol, page 114:

After waiting some five hours to be called forward on an unusually hot, humid Summer’s day in London (I believe temperatures soared to around 30 degrees Centigrade or around 90F), I presented my mug shot to the perky female jobs-worth official.

A photograph taken of the head and shoulders, often from the front and in profile, usually taken in conjunction with somebody's arrest.


stealing

en-noun

stealing (countable and uncountable, plural stealings)

(uncountable) The action of the verb to steal, theft.


spiv

Unknown. Perhaps from spiff, spiffy. Spiv was the nickname of Henry Bagster, a Londoner arrested a number of times in 1904-6 for activities as described below, and may have been the archetype. Also possibly from Romani spiv (“sparrow”), as active and opportunistic.

(UK, Ireland, historical) A smartly dressed person who trades in illicit, black-market or stolen goods, especially during World War II.


conman

confidence trickster
confidence trickster


defalcate

en-verb

defalcate (third-person singular simple present defalcates, present participle defalcating, simple past and past participle defalcated)

defalcates (present singular third-person)
defalcating (participle present)
defalcated (participle past)
defalcated (past)

1530s, in sense “to lop off”, from Medieval Latin dēfalcātus, perfect passive participle of dēfalcō (“cut or lop off”), from Latin dē (“off”) + falx (“sickle, scythe, pruning hook”), from which also English falcate (“sickle-shaped”).

One would have thought the natural method in a plan of reformation vvould be, to take the preſent exiſting eſtimates as they ſtand; and then to ſhevv vvhat may be practicably and ſafely defalcated from them.

1769, [Edmund Burke], Observations on a Late State of the Nation, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 42:

To deduct or take away (a part of income, money, rents, etc.).


DCC

en-noun

DCC (countable and uncountable, plural DCCs)

deputy chief constable
deputy chief constable#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of deputy chief constable, a police rank used in Commonwealth countries.


agent provocateur

agent provocateur (plural agents provocateurs)

Borrowed from French agent provocateur (literally “provocative agent”).

bor

"This agent-provocateur business is quite foreign to British justice."

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

I was told afterwards—quite possibly it was true—that agents provocateurs were touching off masses of explosive in order to increase the general noise and panic.

1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter IX, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:

Suspecting that the man was an agent provocateur sent by the Prince, Pottinger told him that regrettably he had neither the knowledge nor the authority to instruct him in this or any other religion.

1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 50:

The criminalisation of protest has been aided by the director of public prosecution's recent guidelines on prosecuting protesters, which fail to account for the role of the police in prompting violence at demonstrations through tactics such as kettling, the use of batons, agents provocateurs and undercover policing.

2012 March 25, Nadine El-Enany, The Guardian:

A person who secretly disrupts a group's activities from within the group, particularly by encouraging or committing illegal acts to discredit the group or expose them to prosecution; an instigator, troublemaker.

պրովոկատոր

a person who disrupts a group's activities from within

(beépített / civil ruhás rendőrségi) provokátor/provokatőr


charger

/ˈt͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒɚ/

-ɑː(ɹ)dʒə(ɹ)

From Middle English chargere, equivalent to charge + -er.

dækketallerken

a large platter under the dinner plate in a formal dinner setting

Miller had a new executive officer, a real charger, as they're known in the trade, who was looking into all aspects of the operation up there.

1980, Bill Gulley, Mary Ellen Reese, Breaking Cover, page 161:

Synonym of hard charger (“person with a good work ethic”)


owling

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-owling.wav

(historical) The smuggling of sheep or wool out of England.


boy in blue

Air force personnel used to distinguish airmen (blue jobs or boys in blue) from army personnel (brown jobs or boys in brown).

2006, David W. Clark, Joe's Letters, page 38:

(UK, air force slang, dated) A member of the air force.


victimless crime

en-noun

victimless crime (plural victimless crimes)

An act that is prohibited by law, yet which neither directly harms nor violates the rights of any specific person, although some people may claim it harms society as a whole.


stuffer

One who conceals a package of illegal drugs by swallowing them.


NPTA

Initialism of National Police and Troopers Association.


goonda

‘I cannot imagine the minds of goondas.’

2020, Avni Doshi, Burnt Sugar, Hamish Hamilton, page 31:


superintendent

From Ecclesiastical Latin superintendens, a calque of Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos); thence being distantly related to English bishop.


dark figure

In exploring the dark figure of crime, the primary question is not how much of it becomes revealed but rather what will be the selective properties of any particular innovation for its illumination.

1977, US Congressional House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Suspension of the National Crime Survey, page 15:

The dark figure concerning these criminal offences, is very high and the attitude towards reporting such cases is not constant.

1992, Hisao Katoh, Louise I. Shelley, Hisao Katō, Hans-Günther Heiland, Crime and Control in Comparative Perspectives, Walter de Gruyter, page 49:

By definition, they ignore the unreported “dark figure” of crime. We turn now to a second source of official crime data.

2000, Piers Beirne, James W. Messerschmidt, Criminology:

Arguing that the dark figure is larger, perhaps very large (“The cases we know about are just the tip of the iceberg!”), makes any estimate seem possible, even reasonable.

2012, Joel Best, Damned Lies and Statistics […] , University of California Press, →ISBN, page 37:

(criminology, statistics) The estimated number of unreported criminal cases.


jockey

The word is by origin a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for "boy" or "fellow" (compare Jack, Dick), at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's Richard III. v. 3, 304. Equivalent to jock + -ey.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was applied to horse-dealers, postilions, itinerant minstrels and vagabonds, and thus frequently bore the meaning of a cunning trickster, a "sharp", whence the verb to jockey, "to outwit" or "to do" a person out of something. The current meaning of a person who rides a horse in races was first seen in 1670.

(UK, crime, slang) A prostitute's client.


black market

Ca. 1930, probably a calque of German Schwarzmarkt, which is attested from the 1910s. Compare Schwärzer (“smuggler”, 18th c.).

Peace and order will not be tolerated. Start saving your cash for the black market, folks, you're gonna need it.

2004, George Carlin, “THE FANATICS WILL WIN”, in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, page 135:

In District 12, a dirt-poor coal-mining community that looks like a Dorothea Lange photograph, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) quietly rebels against the system by hunting game in a forbidden area with her friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and trading it on the black market.

2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club:

Increasing numbers of people are turning to a growing black market for food to supplement their diets as prices rocket, experts have said.

2023 December 22, Robyn Vinter, “Britons increasingly turning to food black market, experts say”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Trade that is in violation of restrictions, rationing, or price controls.

swartmark

trade that is in violation of restrictions, rationing or price controls


glasshouse

From Middle English glasehows, glashous, glashows; equivalent to glass + house.

people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

(British military slang) A military prison.

оранжерия

building made of glass in which plants are grown


slant

Late Middle English, from a variant of the earlier form dialectical slent, from Old Norse or another North Germanic source, cognate with Old Norse slent, Swedish slinta (“to slip”), Norwegian slenta (“to fall on the side”), from Proto-Germanic *slintaną. Probably influenced by aslant.

kalteva lokero

depression with sloping bottom to hold watercolors

(Australia, slang) A crime committed for the purpose of being apprehended and transported to a major settlement.

(US, ethnic slur, derogatory) A person with slanting eyes, particularly an East Asian.


kidnapping

en-noun

kidnapping (countable and uncountable, plural kidnappings)

(crime) The crime of taking a person against their will, sometimes for ransom.

rrëmbim

the crime of taking a person against their will, sometimes for ransom


coating

The bogey gave him a right coating.

1931, The Police Journal, volume 4, page 501:

(law enforcement slang) A telling-off; a reprimand.


ringing

ringing (countable and uncountable, plural ringings)


stockade

From French estocade, equivalent to stock + -ade.


trespasser

Pilton Yard, the Lynton & Barnstaple headquarters, has been taken over by a fur trading firm, and would-be trespassers to the old engine-shed are turned back by the pungent odour of heaps of carcases.

1951 February, “Notes and News: Lynton & Barnstaple Remains”, in Railway Magazine, page 136:

The human is a land animal, not an aquatic one, and he is therefore a trespasser in the water.

1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 16:


strangler

/ˈstɹæŋɡ(ə)lə/

An epiphyte whose aerial roots eventually strangle the tree on which it grows.


backstory

From back- (prefix meaning ‘in, into, or towards the past’) + story.

prefix

(chiefly espionage, law enforcement) A fictitious account of a person's history designed to conceal their actual history and motives.


carjack

en-verb

carjack (third-person singular simple present carjacks, present participle carjacking, simple past and past participle carjacked)

carjacks (present singular third-person)
carjacking (participle present)
carjacked (participle past)
carjacked (past)

/ˈkɑɹ.d͡ʒæk/

Someone should carjack that pompous jerk and teach him a lesson!

(transitive) To steal an automobile forcibly from (someone).


walk the beat

walk the beat (third-person singular simple present walks the beat, present participle walking the beat, simple past and past participle walked the beat)

walks the beat (present singular third-person)
walking the beat (participle present)
walked the beat (participle past)
walked the beat (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-walk the beat.wav

(idiomatic, slang) To patrol on the job, especially as a police officer or guard.


voyeurism

en-noun

voyeurism (usually uncountable, plural voyeurisms)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-voyeurism.wav

The derivation of sexual satisfaction by watching unsuspecting people secretly, especially when those being watched are undressed or undressing, flashing, toileting, or engaging in sexual activity.

voyeurisme

derivation of sexual satisfaction by watching people secretly

(by extension) The derivation of satisfaction by obsessively watching or following sensational or sordid subjects.


DS

DS (countable and uncountable, plural DSs or DSes)

detective sergeant
detective sergeant#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of detective sergeant; a police rank used in Commonwealth countries.


embezzle

en-verb

embezzle (third-person singular simple present embezzles, present participle embezzling, simple past and past participle embezzled)

embezzles (present singular third-person)
embezzling (participle present)
embezzled (participle past)
embezzled (past)

From Middle English embesilen, from Anglo-Norman embesiler, embesillier, embeseillier (“to steal, cause to disappear”), from em- + Old French besillier (“to torment, destroy, gouge”), of unknown origin.

der

You waste your education in burglary. You should do one of two things. Either you should forge or you should embezzle. For my own part, I embezzle.

1903, H. G. Wells, “Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation”, in Twelve Stories and a Dream:

You let Dunsey have it, sir? And how long have you been so thick with Dunsey that you must collogue with him to embezzle my money?

1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

(law, business) To steal or misappropriate money that one has been trusted with, especially to steal money from the organisation for which one works.

غَلَّ

to steal money that one has been trusted with

присва́ивать

обманным путём чужие деньги


embezzler

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1667, Samuel Pepys, Diary
It appears that Hogg is the eeriest rogue, the most observable embezzler, that ever was known.

At the time, I was deeply involved with the handsome embezzler who led a major telecom company into bankruptcy.

That word is bezzle. It describes the period in which an embezzler has stolen a man's money but the victim does not yet realize he's been swindled.

2015 December 3, Tracy Alloway, “There's Been a Bezzle-Fueled Boom in Bonds”, in Markets, Bloomberg News, retrieved 2021-08-16:

There’s good reason to worry. In an earlier memoir, “Five-Finger Discount,” Stapinski recreated the terrifying world of swindlers, embezzlers, burglars and mobster wannabes who made up her extended Jersey City family.

2017 June 23, Max Byrd, “A Trip to Southern Italy to Shed Light on a Family Scandal”, in The New York Times:

One who steals money they have been trusted with, especially from one's employer; one who embezzles.

bedrieër

one who steals money they have been trusted with


mickey

* (potato): From the common Irish name; compare murphy (“a potato”).
* (computer mouse resolution): An allusion to the cartoon character Mickey Mouse.

I slipped him a mickey.

(US, slang) A Mickey Finn; a beverage, usually alcoholic, that has been drugged.


buster

Originally a dialectal variant of burster; later influenced by bust + -er.
The combining form of the term has appeared from the early 20th century but been especially prolific during three periods: in the 1930s, owing to the success of the radio series Gang Busters; in the 1940s, owing to its appearance as military slang; and in the 1980s, owing to the success of the movie Ghostbusters.

rebenta-

person or thing that breaks or overwhelms

Men nicknamed him the ‘Booze Buster’, and cartoonists loved to picture him, revolver in hand,... fighting the demon rum.

1920, F. A. McKenzie, ‘Pussyfoot’ Johnson, v. 83

The professional fraud-busters [of the art world].

New York City traffic agents have become Gridlock Busters and cigarette foes are smokebusters.

(chiefly colloquial, with 'of') Someone who or something that 'breaks', tames, or overpowers a specified person or thing.

(chiefly law enforcement slang) Forming compounds denoting an agent or agency tasked with reducing or eliminating the first element.


mafia

See Mafia. The sense "entity which attempts to control a specified arena" makes an analogy to crime-syndicate mafias' attempts to control certain kinds of business in the regions in which they exist.


killing spree

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-killing spree.wav

A number of murders in a short span of time; a rampage.


calabozo

Borrowed from Spanish calabozo. Doublet of calaboose.


snuff

en-noun

snuff (countable and uncountable, plural snuffs)

From Middle English snoffe, snuffe, of uncertain origin. Compare Middle Dutch snuf, snof (“snuff”), Dutch sneuvelen (“to die in battle”).

The cops are chasing their own asses on the St Christopher case, so how about a “Are You St Christopher's Next Slaying?” piece? Profiles of all the snuffs to date and reconstructions of the victims' last minutes.

2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:


police car

An automobile used by a police officer when on duty.

vehículo policial / policíaco / policiaco


silent alarm

A burglar alarm that makes no noise that is audible to the trespasser.


paddy wagon

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Supposedly from Paddy, a derogatory name for an Irishman.

(slang) A police van for transporting prisoners.


concussion

concussion (countable and uncountable, plural concussions)

Then Concussion, Rapine, Pillories, / Their Catalogue of Accusations fill.

1595, Samuel Daniel, “(please specify the folio number)”, in The First Fowre Bookes of the Ciuile Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke, London: […] P[eter] Short for Simon Waterson, →OCLC:

(obsolete, law) The unlawful forcing of another by threats of violence to yield up something of value.


steal

From Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan, from Proto-West Germanic *stelan, from Proto-Germanic *stelaną.
Compare West Frisian stelle, Low German stehlen, Dutch stelen, German stehlen, Danish stjæle, Swedish stjäla, Norwegian Bokmål stjele, Norwegian Nynorsk stela, Sanskrit स्तेय (steya); see below for more.
For the meaning development compare with Russian красть (krastʹ, “to steal”) and Russian кра́сться (krástʹsja, “to stalk, to prowl, to slink”).
etymology notes
Proposed etymologies beyond Germanic are numerous and include
* Proto-Indo-European *ster-: compare Welsh herw (“theft, raid”), Ancient Greek στερέω (steréō, “to deprive of”)
* Proto-Indo-European *stel(H)- (“to stretch”): compare Albanian pë/mbështjell (“I confuse, mess up, mix, wrap up”), Old Church Slavonic стєлѭ (steljǫ, “I spread out (bed, roof)”), Ancient Greek τηλία (tēlía, “playing table”)
* Proto-Indo-European *tsel- (“to sneak”): compare Sanskrit त्सरति (tsárati, “creep, sneak up on”) and other forms under Pokorny 5. *sel- "schleichen, kriechen"


number one

(US, law enforcement) Black, African-American.


war criminal

A person guilty of one or more war crimes.


coast guard

From coast + guard. Compare Old English sǣweard (“coastguard”, literally “sea-guard”).

noncog

I went down to the coast guard to see what they're guarding / "See what the sign says, you idiot, we're guarding the coast"

2018, Bill Wurtz (lyrics and music), “Long Long Long Journey”:

The organisation or officer enforcing maritime law and policing the seas within territorial waters.


cutthroat

en-noun

cutthroat (countable and uncountable, plural cutthroats)

Children go through a phase of compound acquisition in which they invent cutthroats spontaneously before dropping the habit again.

2015 May 22, Stan Carey, “The Kick-butt World of Cutthroat Compounds”, in Slate Lexicon Valley:

cutthroat compound
cutthroat compound#English

(linguistics) Short for cutthroat compound (“an agentive-instrumental verb-noun compound word”).


cellmate

A person with whom one shares a prison cell.


death row

death row (countable and uncountable, plural death rows)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-death row.wav

Reggie Clemons has one last chance to save his life. After 19 years on death row in Missouri for the murder of two young women, he has been granted a final opportunity to persuade a judge that he should be spared execution by lethal injection.

2012 August 21, Ed Pilkington, “Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?”, in The Guardian:

The section of a prison which houses those inmates who are sentenced to death.


criminal negligence

criminal negligence (usually uncountable, plural criminal negligences)

(law) Failure to use reasonable care, and thus put someone at risk of injury or death.


larcenous

en-adj

larcenous (comparative more larcenous, superlative most larcenous)

more larcenous (comparative)
most larcenous (superlative)


breakout

(aviation) The point at which visibility returns after passing through clouds.


decriminalize

en-verb

decriminalize (third-person singular simple present decriminalizes, present participle decriminalizing, simple past and past participle decriminalized)

decriminalizes (present singular third-person)
decriminalizing (participle present)
decriminalized (participle past)
decriminalized (past)

Back-formation from decriminalization, equivalent to de- + criminalize.

The march to decriminalize drugs moved further across the nation on Tuesday despite continued federal prohibition.

2020 April 11, Thomas Fuller, “Oregon Decriminalizes Small Amounts of Heroin and Cocaine; Four States Legalize Marijuana”, in The New York Times:

The House of Representatives approved decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level on Friday in the first time Congress has acted on the issue.

2020 April 12, Deirdre Walsh, “House Approves Decriminalizing Marijuana; Bill To Stall In Senate”, in NPR:

Last fall Oregon voters decriminalized possession of small amounts of almost all hard drugs, taking a groundbreaking step away from the arrest, charge and jail model for possession that's been a centerpiece of American drug policy since President Richard Nixon declared his War on Drugs 50 years ago this week.

2021 June 18, Eric Westervelt, “Oregon's Pioneering Drug Decriminalization Experiment Is Now Facing The Hard Test”, in NPR:

The court’s decision decriminalizes abortions in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, and means that any woman should be able to seek the procedure from a health professional without fear of criminal prosecution.

2022 February 22, Julie Turkewitz, “Colombia Decriminalizes Abortion, Bolstering Trend Across Region”, in The New York Times:

(transitive) To change the laws so something is no longer a crime.

despenalitzar

to change the laws so something is no longer a crime


criminalize

criminalize (third-person singular simple present criminalizes, present participle criminalizing, simple past and past participle criminalized)

criminalizes (present singular third-person)
criminalizing (participle present)
criminalized (participle past)
criminalized (past)

"Ag-gag laws criminalize undercover investigations by prohibiting one or more of three types of behavior: trespass, recording of videos, and failure to submit a video to law enforcement."

2015, Gregg Barak, editor, The Routledge International Handbook of the Crimes of the Powerful:

The Nixon campaign in 1968[…] had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. […] [B]y getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.

2016 April 1, Dan Baum, quoting John Ehrlichman, “Legalize It All”, in Harper's Magazine:

Advocates for homeless people, the American Psychiatric Association and several left-leaning states, including New York, Illinois and Minnesota, argue that criminalizing homelessness only worsens the problem.

2024 April 22, Shawn Hubler, “Homelessness Case Draws Unusual Alliances: Conservatives and California Democrats”, in The New York Times:

A group of homeless residents sued the city, challenging the ordinances and contending that the local laws essentially criminalized homelessness.

2024 June 28, Abbie VanSickle, “Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Sleeping Outdoors in Homelessness Case”, in The New York Times:

Italy passed a law on Wednesday that criminalizes seeking surrogacy abroad, a move the country’s conservative government said would protect women’s dignity, while critics see it as yet another crackdown by the government on L.G.B.T. families, as the law will make it virtually impossible for gay fathers to have children.

2024 October 16, Emma Bubela, “Italy Criminalizes Surrogacy From Abroad, a Blow to Gay and Infertile Couples”, in The New York Times:

(transitive) To make (something) a crime; to make illegal under criminal law; to ban.

tehdä (jostakin) rikos (object in elative and usually before rikos)


lifer

They know what a clever lad he is; he'll be a lifer. They'll make the Artful nothing less than a lifer.

1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

A prisoner sentenced to transportation for life.

I saw six species of honeyeaters new to me and went home with 16 lifers and some bad sandfly bites.

2013, Sue Taylor, Best 100 Birdwatching Sites in Australia:

(birdwatching) A bird species seen for the first time by a birder who is keeping a list of all the species he or she has ever seen.


thievery

en-noun

thievery (countable and uncountable, plural thieveries)

From thieve + -ery. Compare Old Frisian deverie ("thievery; theft"; > West Frisian dieverij; Saterland Frisian Däiweräi), Dutch dieverij (“thievery”), German Low German Deveree (“thievery; theft”), German Dieberei (“thievery”), Danish tyveri (“thievery; theft; larceny”), Swedish tjuveri (“thievery”).

gloss

This instance of thievery will not be overlooked.

One thief may well have the power to achieve a certain amount of success in fulfilling his desires to possess the property of another. But thievery being what it is, it feeds that desire in an intemperate way, and so the desire grows and grows.

2008, John O’Callaghan, “Neither Robber Barons nor Philosopher Kings: Political Prudence in the Just Polity”, in Margaret Monahan Hogan, Lauretta Conklin Frederking, editors, The American Experiment: Religious Freedom, [Portland, Ore.]: University of Portland, Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture, →ISBN, section 4 (Theoretical Analyses), page 343:


conjugal visit

A scheduled visit during which an inmate of a penal institution is permitted to have sexual intercourse with a visitor (usually his or her spouse) in a closely controlled setting.


mendicancy squad

en-noun

mendicancy squad (plural mendicancy squads)

It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the look-out for the mendicancy squad. - The Gift of the Magi - "O. Henry" - 1906

(US) police who arrested beggars and homeless people


process server

The process server could not effect service of process because the defendant was nowhere to be found.

The bailiff does not like to see himself as the brutal oppressor of the poor or as the agent of malicious creditors... This distinction between warrant officer and process server is not at all dissimilar to the gulf that divides the law officer and the peace officer in the police force... Warrant officers execute warrants whilst process servers distribute court summonses and cajole debtors.

1973, Paul Rock, Making People Pay, page 162:

(law enforcement) A deliverer of processes or summonses, the formal announcements of the beginning of a legal action; a huissier de justice or other equivalent position in other legal systems.


CSP

CSP (countable and uncountable, plural CSPs)

chief superintendent
chief superintendent#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of chief superintendent (a police rank).


narco

The conflict has become a test of endurance for both the government and the narcos.

2010 October 16, “Under the volcano”, in The Economist:

(crime) A Latin American drug baron, usually from Colombia or Mexico.

(law enforcement) Acronym of narcotics control officer (“a police officer specializing in drug crimes”).


arsonist

One who has committed the act of arson, or illegally setting fire to property.


jailbreak

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-jailbreak.wav

DAN has become a canonical example of what's known as a "jailbreak" — a creative way to bypass the safeguards OpenAI built in to keep ChatGPT from spouting bigotry, propaganda or, say, the instructions to run a successful online phishing scam. From charming to disturbing, these jailbreaks reveal the chatbot is programmed to be more of a people-pleaser than a rule-follower.

2023 February 14, Will Oremus, “Meet ChatGPT's evil twin, DAN”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-19:

The jailbreak of ChatGPT has been in operation since December, but users have had to find new ways around fixes OpenAI implemented to stop the workarounds.

2023 March 8, Josh Taylor, “ChatGPT's alter ego, Dan: users jailbreak AI program to get around ethical safeguards”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-23:

It's for this reason that Alex Albert, a computer science student at the University of Washington, created Jailbreak Chat, a site that hosts a collection of ChatGPT jailbreaks.

2023 March 22, Chloe Xiang, “The Amateurs Jailbreaking GPT Say They're Preventing a Closed-Source AI Dystopia”, in VICE, archived from the original on 2023-03-23:

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

large language model
large language model

(artificial intelligence) A prompt to a large language model which frees it from its ethical restrictions.


jailbreak

en-verb

jailbreak (third-person singular simple present jailbreaks, present participle jailbreaking, simple past jailbroke, past participle jailbroken)

jailbreaks (present singular third-person)
jailbreaking (participle present)
jailbroke (past)
jailbroken (participle past)

Unofficially, it has been possible to “Jailbreak” iOS and gain access to the underlying Unix and kernel environment, but this voids the warranty.

2012, Ole Henry Halvorsen, Douglas Clarke, OS X and iOS Kernel Programming, Apress, →ISBN, page 21:

In order to gain true root access to a mobile device, a user has to either jailbreak (iOS) or root (Android/Windows) the device.

2016, Mike Meyers, CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Ninth Edition (Exams 220-901 & 220-902), McGraw Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 1172:

(transitive, computing) To modify the firmware of an electronic device, especially a mobile phone, in order to remove restrictions that prevent it from running unofficial software.

ChatGPT is far from perfect. Twitter has been flooded with examples of "jailbreaking" ChatGPT — that is, tricking it into hallucinations or misalignment.

2022 December 16, Farhad Manjoo, “ChatGPT Has a Devastating Sense of Humor”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-16:

These are young technologies. Rather than jailbreaking AI tools to simulate conversations between the rapper Ye and Adolf Hitler, or waiting uneasily for them to become sentient, why don't we approach them as good parents would — and talk to them, or read to them, the way we do to children?

2022 December 27, Alyssa Rosenberg, “Something AI can't do: Tell a great bedtime story”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-27:

The desire to jailbreak ChatGPT so that it violates safety filters follows a pattern of use by people that are dissatisfied by the moderation of the chatbot.

2023 February 8, Chloe Xiang, “People are 'Jailbreaking' ChatGPT to Make It Endorse Racism, Conspiracies”, in VICE, archived from the original on 2023-03-22:

(artificial intelligence) To free a large language model from its ethical restrictions using prompt injection.


bloodshed

en-noun

bloodshed (usually uncountable, plural bloodsheds)

From attested early forms of such phrases as "there was much blood shed"; equivalent to blood + shed, past participle of shed.

A slaughter; destruction of life, notably on a large scale.


swatting

Swatting started in the combative world of online gaming. It was a way to terrorize someone more famous, get even with a rival or retaliate against someone with different political views.

2020 January 23, Sheera Frenkel, “People Are Calling SWAT Teams to Tech Executives’ Homes”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Mr. Herring’s relatives said they wanted tougher laws against swatting and more training for police agencies on how to recognize potential fake calls.

2021 July 24, Maria Cramer, “A Grandfather Died in ‘Swatting’ Over His Twitter Handle, Officials Say”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, slang) The action of making an illegitimate call to the police so as to have a SWAT team dispatched to a location.


venality

venality (countable and uncountable, plural venalities)

From venal + -ity, from French vénalité or Latin vēnālitās, from vēnālis (“venal”), from vēnum; compare English vend.

1785, The Times, 17 Jan 1785, p.1 col. B
As your spirited paper has declared war, not only against venality and despotism, but was intended to correct follies and abuses in private life, I hope the following will come within its useful plan.

The fact or state of being for sale, especially with reference to bribes or corruption.


solitary confinement

solitary confinement (usually uncountable, plural solitary confinements)

Forced isolation in a small space and the denial of contact with other persons, usually as a form of punishment for a prison inmate.


profiteer

/ˌpɹɒfɪˈtɪə(ɹ)/

(derogatory) One who makes an unreasonable profit not justified by cost or risk, a rent-seeker.

إسْتِغْلَالِيّ

one who makes an unreasonable profit not justified by their corresponding assumption of risk