book

en-verb

book (third-person singular simple present books, present participle booking, simple past and past participle booked)

books (present singular third-person)
booking (participle present)
booked (participle past)
booked (past)

From Middle English booken, boken, from Old English bōcian, ġebōcian, from the noun (see above).

The police booked him for driving too fast.

(law enforcement, transitive) To record the name and other details of a suspected offender and the offence for later judicial action.


abet

abet (third-person singular simple present abets, present participle abetting, simple past and past participle abetted)

abets (present singular third-person)
abetting (participle present)
abetted (participle past)
abetted (past)

From Middle English abetten, abette, from Old French abeter (“to entice”), from a- (“to”) + beter (“hound on, urge, to bait”), either from Middle Dutch bētan (“incite”) or from Old Norse beita (“to cause to bite, bait, incite”), from Proto-Germanic *baitijaną (“to cause to bite”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”). Cognate with Icelandic beita (“to set dogs on; to feed”).
Alternate etymology traces the Middle English and Old French words through Old English *ābǣtan (“to hound on”), from ā- + bǣtan (“to bait”), from the same source (Proto-Germanic *baitijaną).
See also bait, bet.

cog

aid and abet

Those who would exalt themselves by abetting the strength of the Godless, and the wrength of the oppressors.

1823, John Galt, Ringan Gilhaize or The Covenanters:

The Statute provides that whoever has been engaged in aiding, abetting, or assisting, directly or indirectly, is criminal.

1851, Charles G. Davis, Report of the Proceedings at the Examination of Charles G. Davis, Esq., on the Charge of Aiding and Abetting in the Rescue of a Fugitive Slave, page 39:

In the matter of Treason the pig would appear / To have aided, but scarcely abetted: / While the charge of Insolvency fails, it is clear, If you grant the plea ‘never indebted.

1876, Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark […] , London: Macmillan, Fit the Sixth. The Barrister's Dream:

The brief, a motion for summary judgment in a case stemming from Fox’s egregiously false claims of Dominion-abetted election fraud, offers a portrait of extravagant cynicism.

2023 February 17, Michelle Goldberg, “What Fox News Says When You’re Not Listening”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(transitive, crime) To incite; to assist or encourage by aid or countenance in crime.


abortionist

(chiefly derogatory) A person who advocates for or supports the legality of abortion.


alphabet

From Middle English alphabete, borrowed from Late Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos), from ἄλφα (álpha) and βῆτα (bêta), the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, Α (A) and Β (B), lowercase forms α and β. The Greek names derived from aleph, the name of the Phoenician letter 𐤀 (ʾ, “ox”) and beth, the name of the letter 𐤁 (b, “house”), so called because they were pictograms of those objects, having developed from the Egyptian hieroglyphs F1 (𓃾) and pr (𓉐).
 Doublet of alfabeto.

(Internet slang, politics) An agent of the FBI, the CIA, or another such government agency.


German

en-noun

German (countable and uncountable, plural Germans)

/ˈd͡ʒɜː.mən/

From Latin Germānus, Germānī (“the peoples of Germānia”), as distinct from Gauls (in the writings of Caesar and Tacitus), and of uncertain ultimate origin (possibly Celtic/Gaulish).
Not related to german (“closely related”) or germane (from the Latin adjective germānus, through Old French).
Attested since at least 1520. Replaced the older terms Almain and Dutch (from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz) in English. Besides cognates of German, Almain, and Dutch, two other categories of words for the Germans in other languages are cognates of Saxon and descendants of Proto-Slavic *němьcь; see those entries for more.
The surname is generally from the noun, though sometimes confused with Herman, Hermann under Russian influence. As a German surname, Americanized from Germann. Compare Germán, Germain, Jerman.

There are some 32 different terms for prison officers, from the humorously affectionate kanga(rhyming slang:kangaroo = screw) and the variants Scooby-Doo and Dr. Who via the mildly confrontational German (as if still the enemy over 50 years after World War II!) to the outright abuse of shit-parcel.

1996, Angela Devlin, Prison Patter, Waterside Press, →ISBN:


FBI

→ Arabic: إِف بِي أَي (ʔif bī ʔay)

→ Bulgarian: ФБР (FBR)

→ Dutch: FBI

→ French: FBI

→ Galician: FBI

desc

→ Hindi: एफ़ बी आई (ef bī āī)

→ Hindi: एफ़ बी आई (ef bī āī)

→ Indonesian: FBI

→ Japanese: エフ・ビー・アイ

→ Japanese: エフ・ビー・アイ

→ Marathi: एफ्.बी.आय्. (eph.bī.āy.)

→ Persian: افبیآی

→ Portuguese: FBI

→ Romanian: FBI

→ Russian: ФБР (FBR)

→ Thai: เอฟบีไอ

→ Thai: เอฟบีไอ

The FBI began publishing national quarterly crime reports last year, but has not done so for the first two quarters of 2021, stating that they require at least 60% of agencies to submit NIBRS data in order to publish quarterly data.

2021 September 27, Priya Krishnakumar, “Murders rose sharply in 2020 but data is lacking across much of the country”, in CNN:

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation#English

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of Federal Bureau of Investigation.


rape

en-verb

rape (third-person singular simple present rapes, present participle raping, simple past and past participle raped)

rapes (present singular third-person)
raping (participle present)
raped (participle past)
raped (past)

From Middle English rapen, rappen (“to abduct; ravish; seduce; rape; seize; snatch; carry off; transport”), probably from Latin rapere (verb), possibly through or influenced by Anglo-Norman rap, rape (noun) (compare also ravish). But compare Swedish rappa (“to snatch, seize, carry off”), Low German rapen (“to snatch, seize”), Dutch rapen (“to pick up, gather, collect”); the relationship with Germanic forms is not clear. Cognate with Lithuanian reikėti (“to be in need”). Compare also rap (“seize, snatch”). Further, some senses may be from Etymology 3, an Old Norse word.

smadre

cause damage, destruction to a countryside, nature etc

I raped your richest roadstead—I plundered Singapore!

1892, Rudyard Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads:

They come out here in their perky little foreign cars, fifty pounds of American copper in each one, and tell us we're earth-raping monsters.

We've raped the land for power and possession / Two thousand years and all we'll have is a planetary toxic deathbed

(transitive) To plunder, to destroy or despoil.


war

en-noun

war (countable and uncountable, plural wars)

From Middle English werre, from Late Old English werre, wyrre (“armed conflict”), from Old Northern French werre (compare modern French guerre), from Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish *werru (“confusion; quarrel”), from Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh”). Gradually displaced native Old English beadu, hild, ġewinn, orleġe, wīġ, and many others as the general term for "war" during the Middle English period.
Related to Old High German werra (“confusion, strife, quarrel”) and German verwirren (“to confuse”), but not to Wehr (“defense”). Also related to Old Saxon werran (“to confuse, perplex”), Dutch war (“confusion, disarray”), West Frisian war (“confusion”),
Old English wyrsa, wiersa (“worse”), Old Norse verri (“worse, orig. confounded, mixed up”), Italian guerra (“war”). There may be a connection with worse and wurst.

cog

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River

Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851 painting)

turf war... gang war... Castellammarese War...

(countable, by extension) Any protracted conflict, particularly

(crime) A prolonged conflict between two groups of organized criminals, usually over organizational or territorial control.


lapidation

en-noun

lapidation (countable and uncountable, plural lapidations)

/ˌlæpɪˈdeɪʃən/

The five women on trial were almost all activists for the full repeal (not just a moratorium) of lapidation, ie stoning, from Iran’s law books.

2007 March 6, “International Women’s Day, another day of repression for women”, in 亚州新闻:

(law) The practice or act of stoning, sometimes to the point of death, as punishment


kill

en-verb

kill (third-person singular simple present kills, present participle killing, simple past and past participle killed)

kills (present singular third-person)
killing (participle present)
killed (participle past)
killed (past)
kill (infinitive)

From Middle English killen, kyllen, cüllen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots kele, keil (“to kill”).
* Perhaps from Old English *cyllan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwulljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwuljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to throw, hit, hurt by throwing”).
* Or, possibly a variant of Old English cwellan (“to kill, murder, execute”) (see quell).
* Or, from Old Norse kolla (“to hit on the head, harm”), related to Norwegian kylla (“to poll”), Middle Dutch kollen (“to knock down”), Icelandic kollur (“top, head”); see also coll, cole).
Compare also Saterland Frisian källe (“to hurt”), Middle Dutch kellen (“to kill, hurt”), Middle Low German kellen, killen (“to ache strongly, cause one great pain”), Middle High German kellen (“to torment; torture”).

cog

l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand

Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol and drugs combined.

A Troope of Horſe with Felt: Ile put't in proofe, / And when I haue ſtolne vpon theſe Son in Lawes, / Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi], page 304:

Stephano: Monſter, I will kill this man : his daughter and I will be King and Queene, ſave our Graces : and Trinculo and thy ſelfe ſhall be Vice-royes : […]

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12:

Fire ants circumvented the problem of an ineffective sting by having an unusual and highly effective venom that when daubed or sprayed on other ants penetrates their waxy protective integumental barrier and kills or disables them.

2016, Justin O. Schmidt, The Sting of the Wild, Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 102:

Indeed, referring to his drone murder extermination campaign Obama bragged: "I'm really good at killing people!" Those are Obama's own words!

2021, Francis A. Boyle, World Politics, Human Rights, and International Law, page 9:

(transitive) To put to death; to extinguish the life of.


SARS

Special Anti-Robbery Squad
w:Special Anti-Robbery Squad

(Nigeria, law enforcement) Initialism of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a Nigerian police unit known for police brutality and corruption


counterfeit

From Middle English counterfeit, countrefet, from Anglo-Norman countrefait, from Old French contrefait, from Latin contra- (“against”) + Latin facere (“to make”).

Thou drawest a counterfeit / Best in all Athens.

c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

Even Nature's self envied the same, / And grudged to see the counterfeit should shame / The thing itself.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(obsolete) That which resembles another thing; a likeness; a portrait; a counterpart.


deuce

From Middle English dewes (“two”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French deus, from Latin duo. The word was used by Ford to describe a model of car they made in 1932 due to it being a two-seater.

(Canada, US, slang) A piece of excrement; number two.

The number two.
A piece of excrement; number two.

Bisexual male, 28, doing a deuce in a segregated housing unit due to positive HIV test result, seeks correspondence from both genders.

1988 December 25, Eric Peterson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 14:

(Canada, slang) A two-year prison sentence.

The number two.
A two-year prison sentence.


yegg

en-verb

yegg (third-person singular simple present yeggs, present participle yegging, simple past and past participle yegged)

yeggs (present singular third-person)
yegging (participle present)
yegged (participle past)
yegged (past)

The bookmakers were yegged as they left the track in the era of the hand-books.

1956, Ian Fleming, chapter 10, in Diamonds Are Forever:


mill

Sranan Tongo: miri

→ Hindi: मिल (mil)

From Middle English mylne, mille, from Old English mylen, from Proto-West Germanic *mulīnu (“mill”), from Late Latin molīna, molīnum, molīnus (“mill”), from Latin molō (“grind, mill”, verb), closely allied to Proto-Germanic *muljaną (“to crush, grind”) (see English millstone). Perhaps cognate with Milne (a surname). Doublet of moline and moulin.

cog

every miller draws water to his own mill

the mill cannot grind with water that is past

(World War I– World War II, US military slang) A military prison, either guardhouse or post prison.


prisoner of war

en-noun

prisoner of war (plural prisoners of war)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-PerfectSoundWhatever-prisoner of war.wav

Calque of French prisonnier de guerre, prisonier de guerre (obsolete).

As a prisoner of war, he was interrogated by his enemy captors.

A combatant or soldier who is captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict.

rob lufte

combatant or soldier captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict


hole

→ Japanese: ホール (hōru)

→ Korean: 홀 (hol)

Sranan Tongo: olo

Inherited from Middle English hole, hol, from Old English hol (“orifice, hollow place, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol, from Proto-Germanic *hulą (“hollow space, cavity”), noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”), which is of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to hollow.

отвор

orifice (see anus etc. for specific body cavities)

know one's ass from a hole in the ground

know one's head from a hole in the ground

know the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground

In late December a Washington State prisoner was involved in a scuffle with a guard who was trying to take him into the hole.

1988 April 2, Ed Mead, “AIDS hysteria sweeps prison guards' union”, in Gay Community News, page 9:

Disciplinary actions can range from a mere write up to serious time in the hole.

2011, Ahmariah Jackson, IAtomic Seven, Locked Up but Not Locked Down:

Solitary confinement
solitary confinement

(informal, with "the") Solitary confinement, a high-security prison cell often used as punishment.


handcuffs

1775, from hand + cuff (“end of shirtsleeve”).
Possibly influenced by Old English handcops, from hand + cops (“fetter, chains”), but due to lack of continuity (centuries between Old English and modern term), generally analyzed as a re-invention.

Security is tight inside and outside the building, guarded by a bewildering collection of soldiers, policemen and gendarmes. Relatives watch as prisoners in handcuffs and leg irons shuffle past.

2014 November 27, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian:

A fastening consisting of two metal rings, designed to go around a person's wrists, and connected by a chain or hinge.


pen

From Middle English pen, penne (“enclosure for animals”), from Old English penn (“enclosure, fold, pen”), from Proto-Germanic *pennō, *pannijō (“pin, bolt, nail, tack”), from Proto-Indo-European *bend- (“pointed peg, nail, edge”). Related to pin.
Sense “prison” originally figurative extension to “enclosure for persons” (1845), later influenced by penitentiary (“prison”), being analyzed as an abbreviation (1884).

der

They caught him with a stolen horse, and he wound up in the pen again.

(slang) A penitentiary, i.e. a state or federal prison for convicted felons.


copper

From cop (“to take, capture, seize”) + -er (agent noun suffix).

af

One evening as I was lying down in Leicester Square / I was picked up by the coppers and kicked in the balls

1985, Shane MacGowan (lyrics and music), “The Old Main Drag”, in Rum Sodomy & the Lash, performed by The Pogues:

(slang, law enforcement) A police officer.


AC

assistant commissioner
assistant commissioner#English

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of assistant commissioner, a police rank used in London's Metropolitan Police.


DC

en-noun

DC (countable and uncountable, plural DCs)

detective constable
detective constable#English

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


MS

MS (countable and uncountable, plural MSes)

(criminology) Initialism of murder-suicide.


SP

SP (countable and uncountable, plural SPs)

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of superintendent.


beat

en-adj

beat (comparative more beat, superlative most beat)

more beat (comparative)
most beat (superlative)

beat poetry


CI

en-noun

CI (countable and uncountable, plural CIs)

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

confidential informant
confidential informant#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of confidential informant.


CS

chief superintendent
w:chief superintendent

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of chief superintendent.


AR

AR (countable and uncountable, plural ARs)


CO

corrections officer
corrections officer#English

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of corrections officer.

correctional officer
correctional officer#English

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of correctional officer.


IA

IA (countable and uncountable, plural IAs)

internal affairs
internal affairs#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of internal affairs. (a department responsible for investigating complaints against police officers)


SD

(law enforcement) Initialism of sheriff's department.


graffiti

graffiti (usually uncountable, plural graffiti)

(archaeology, countable) Informal inscriptions, figure drawings, etc., as opposed to official inscriptions.


capital

From Middle English capital, borrowed partly from Old French capital and partly from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (in sense “head of cattle”), from caput (“head”) (English cap) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Use in trade and finance originated in Medieval economies when a common but expensive transaction involved trading heads of cattle. The noun is from the adjective.
Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”.
Doublet of cattle and chattel.

[ˈkʰæp.ɪ.ɾɫ̩]

capital punishment; capital murder

Neither could the Legiſlature in any thing more conſult the Publick Good, than by providing ſome effectual Remedy againſt this Evil, which in ſeveral Caſes deſerves greater Puniſhment than many Crimes that are capital among us.

1709, [Jonathan Swift], A Project for the Advancement of Religion, and the Reformation of Manners. […], London: […] Benj[amin] Tooke, […], →OCLC, pages 53–54:

to put to death a capital offender

1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:

Some 1,600 priests were deported, for example, while the total number of capital victims of the military commissions down to 1799 was only around 150.

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 517:

(crime) Punishable by, or involving punishment by, death.

capital

punishable by, or involving punishment by, death


graft

graft (countable and uncountable, plural grafts)

Uncertain. Some lexicographers suggest an extended use of Etymology 2, above, expanding from “digging” to work more generally, and from there to dishonest work. Others, however, suggest an extension from Etymology 1, shifting from “a shoot or scion” to the notion of corruption through the idea of excrescence.

(uncountable) Corruption in official life.


down

en-adj

down (comparative more down, superlative most down)

tlb

(chiefly predicative, but see usage notes)

more down (comparative)
most down (superlative)

From Middle English doun, from Old English dūne, aphetic form of adūne, from ofdūne (“off the hill”). For the development from directional phrases to prepositions, compare Middle Low German dāle (“(in/to the) valley”), i.e. "down(wards)".

noncog

We have an officer down outside the suspect's house.

There are three soldiers down and one walking wounded.

(not comparable, military, law enforcement, slang, of a person) Wounded and unable to move normally, or killed.


bust

en-verb

bust (third-person singular simple present busts, present participle busting, simple past and past participle busted or bust)

busts (present singular third-person)
busting (participle present)
busted (participle past)
busted (past)
bust (participle past)
bust (past)

From Middle English busten, a variant of Middle English bursten, bresten (“to burst”). Compare German Low German basten and barsten (“to burst”). More at burst.

(transitive, slang) To catch (someone) in the act of doing something wrong, socially and morally inappropriate, or illegal, especially when being done in a sneaky or secretive state.

betrap

(slang) to catch someone in the act of doing something wrong, socially and morally inappropriate, or illegal


bust

(slang) A police raid or takedown of a criminal enterprise.


hit

hit (third-person singular simple present hits, present participle hitting, simple past hit or (dialectal, obsolete) hat or (rare, dialectal) het, past participle hit or (archaic, rare, dialectal) hitten)

hits (present singular third-person)
hitting (participle present)
hit (past)
hat (dialectal obsolete past)
het (dialectal past rare)
hit (participle past)
hitten (archaic dialectal participle past rare)

miss

antonym(s) of “manage to touch in the right place”

From Middle English hitten (“to hit, strike, make contact with”), from Old English hittan (“to meet with, come upon, fall in with”), from Old Norse hitta (“to strike, meet”), from Proto-Germanic *hittijaną (“to come upon, find”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- (“to fall; fall upon; hit; cut; hew”).
Cognate with Icelandic hitta (“to meet”), Danish hitte (“to find”), Latin caedō (“to kill”), Albanian qit (“to hit, throw, pull out, release”).

cog

don't let the door hit you on the way out

let the door hit you where the good Lord split you

not be able to hit the broad side of a barn

Hit him tonight and throw the body in the river.

FREDO: Mikey, why would they ever hit poor old Frankie Five-Angels? I loved that ole sonuvabitch.

1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)

(transitive, slang) To kill a person, usually on the instructions of a third party.

murhata

to kill a person on the instructions of a third party


make

en-verb

make (third-person singular simple present makes, present participle making, simple past and past participle made or (dialectal or obsolete) maked)

makes (present singular third-person)
making (participle present)
made (participle past)
made (past)
maked (dialectal obsolete participle past)
maked (dialectal obsolete past)
make (infinitive)

From Middle English maken, from Old English macian (“to make, build, work”), from Proto-West Germanic *makōn (“to make, build, work”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ǵ- (“to knead, mix, make”).
Related to match.
Cognates
* Scots mak (“to make”)
* Saterland Frisian moakje (“to make”)
* West Frisian meitsje (“to make”)
* Dutch maken (“to make”)
* Dutch Low Saxon maken (“to make”)
* German Low German maken (“to make”)
* German machen (“to make, do”)
* Danish mage (“to make, arrange (in a certain way)”)
* Latin mācerō, macer
* Ancient Greek μάσσω (mássō)

elér

with definite conjugation and a subordinate clause

don't get your honey where you make your money

it takes a heap of living to make a house a home

it takes a heap o' livin' to make a house a home

it takes a lot of living to make a house a home

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make lofty ships carry low sails

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails

you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs

you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear

you've got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette

I caught sight of him two or three times and then made him turning north into Laurel Canyon Drive.

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 33:

Linus Caldwell: Well, she just made Danny and Yen, which means in the next 48 hours the three o' your pictures are gonna be in every police station in Europe.

2004, George Nolfi et al., Ocean's Twelve, Warner Bros. Pictures, 0:50:30

David Sinclair: (walking) Almost at Seventh; I should have a visual any second now. (rounds a corner, almost collides into Kaleed Asan) Damn, that was close.
Don Eppes: David, he make you?
David Sinclair: No, I don't think so.

2007 May 4, Andrew Dettmann et al., "Under Pressure", episode 3-22 of Numb3rs, 00:01:16

(transitive, US slang, crime, law enforcement) To recognise, identify, spot.


bull

en-noun

bull (countable and uncountable, plural bulls)

bear

investor who sells in anticipation of a fall in prices

From Middle English bole, bul, bule, from a conflation of Old English bula (“bull, steer”) and Old Norse boli, both from Proto-Germanic *bulô (“bull”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥no-, from *bʰel- (“to blow, swell up”). Cognate with West Frisian bolle, Dutch bul, German Low German Bull, German Bulle, Swedish bulla; also Old Irish ball (“limb”), Latin follis (“bellows, leather bag”), Thracian βόλινθος (“wild bull”), Macedonian вол (vol, "ox"), Slovene vol ("ox"), Albanian buall (“buffalo”) or related bolle (“testicles”), Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós, “penis”).

rozzer. See also Thesaurus:police officer


bull

From Middle English bulle, from Old French bulle, from Latin bulla, from Gaulish. Doublet of bull (“bubble”) and bulla.

A papal bull, an official document or edict from the Pope.


criminal

From Middle English cryminal, borrowed from Anglo-Norman criminal, from Late Latin criminalis, from Latin crimen (“crime”).

‘[…] There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique. The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning—he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol in Horsemonger Lane, by the way—’

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

A person who is guilty of a crime, notably breaking the law.

kriminele

person guilty of a crime, breaking the law


boot

Solombala English: бучь (bučʹ)

→ Maltese: buz

→ Russian: бутса (butsa)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: бу́це

Latin script: búce

→ Swahili: buti

From Middle English boote, bote (“shoe”), from Old French bote (“a high, thick shoe”). Of obscure origin, but probably related to Old French bot (“club-foot”), bot (“fat, short, blunt”), from Old Frankish *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz, *butaz (“cut off, short, numb, blunt”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewt-, *bʰewd- (“to strike, push, shock”); if so, a doublet of butt. Compare Old Norse butt (“stump”), Low German butt (“blunt, plump”), Old English bytt (“small piece of land”), buttuc (“end”). More at buttock and debut.

cog

couldn't pour water out of a boot with the instructions on the heel

Did you even go to OCS, you complete and utter boot!?

2020 November 2, JoshScorcher, “Top Ten Hated Characters We're Supposed to Like”, in YouTube:

(US, military, law enforcement, slang) A recently arrived recruit; a rookie.


boot

en-verb

boot (third-person singular simple present boots, present participle booting, simple past and past participle booted)

boots (present singular third-person)
booting (participle present)
booted (participle past)
booted (past)

eruitgooien

computing: to eject from an online service

C4 run man through the alley
Get a man down with the swammy
Get a man down with the whammy
Boot couple niggas on the road
No face no case with the bally (booting)

2015 November 1, “Dem Man Know”, C4 (814) (lyrics):

(MLE, criminal slang) To shoot, to kill by gunfire.


crime

en-noun

crime (countable and uncountable, plural crimes)

From Middle English cryme, crime, from Old French crime, crimne, from Latin crīmen. Displaced native Old English firen.

(uncountable) Criminal acts collectively.


bubble

Partly imitative, also influenced by burble. Compare Middle Dutch bobbe (“bubble”) > Dutch bubbel (“bubble”), Low German bubbel (“bubble”), Danish boble (“bubble”), Swedish bubbla (“bubble”). The word was first used in its economic sense in association with the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720, based on the metaphor of an inflated soap bubble bursting.

onom

imitative

Later that day, the unit was staffed with only one officer, who was required to stay in the bubble.

1998, District of Columbia Appropriations for 1998: Hearings:

An officer's station in a prison dormitory, affording views on all sides.


bubble

en-verb

bubble (third-person singular simple present bubbles, present participle bubbling, simple past and past participle bubbled)

bubbles (present singular third-person)
bubbling (participle present)
bubbled (participle past)
bubbled (past)

onom

imitative

Cross out answers as you eliminate them, and practice bubbling your answers on the sheet provided at the very end of the book.

2011, Allison Amend, Adam Robinson, Cracking the SAT.: Literature Subject Test, page 126:

They bubbled her answers on Scantron tests, changed her sanitary napkins, helped her get in and out of the bathroom with a minimum of fuss.

2014, Cammie McGovern, Say What You Will:

You don’t want to go back and forth between the test booklet and your answer sheet to bubble your answers.

2019, Crash Course for the ACT, 6th Edition: Your Last-Minute Guide to Scoring High, page 15:

(transitive) To bubble in; to mark a response on a form by filling in a circular area (‘bubble’).


ring

→ French: ring
→ Romanian: ring

→ Hungarian: ring

→ Italian: ring

→ Japanese: リング

→ Polish: ring

→ Serbo-Croatian: ring

→ Spanish: ring

→ Turkish: ring

From Middle English ryng, from Old English hring (“ring, circle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krengʰ-, extended nasalized form of *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Doublet of rank and rink, as well as indirectly range.
Cognates
* West Frisian ring
* Low German Ring
* Dutch ring
* German Ring
* Swedish ring
* Finnish rengas

a crime ring; a prostitution ring; a bidding ring (at an auction sale)

the ruling ring at Constantinople

1877, Edward Augustus Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England:

It's a blackmail ring, and the district attorneys get a share of the loot.

In a thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, and in subsequent posts, Q established his legend as a government insider with top security clearance who knew the truth about a secret struggle for power involving Donald Trump, the “deep state”, Robert Mueller, the Clintons, pedophile rings, and other stuff.

2018 July 31, Julia Carrie Wong, “What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory”, in The Guardian:

An exclusive group of people, usually involving some unethical or illegal practices.


slay

en-verb

slay (third-person singular simple present slays, present participle slaying, simple past slew or slayed, past participle slain or slayed or (obsolete) yslain)

slays (present singular third-person)
slaying (participle present)
slew (past)
slayed (past)
slain (participle past)
slayed (participle past)
yslain (obsolete participle past)

From Middle English sleen, slayn, from Old English slēan (“to strike, beat, smite, stamp, forge, sting, slay, kill, impact”), from Proto-West Germanic *slahan, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną (“to fight, strike, kill”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”).
Cognate with Dutch slaan (“to beat, hit, strike”), Low German slaan (“hit, strike”), German schlagen (“to beat, hit, strike”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish slå (“to knock, beat, strike”), Icelandic slá (“to strike”). Related to slaughter, onslaught.

cog

The knight slew the dragon.

Our foes must all be slain.

In the meane time it chaunced, that Marcus Papyrius ſtroke one of the Galles on the heade with his ſtaffe, because he preſumed to ſtroke his bearde: with whiche iniurie the Gaulle beeing prouoked, ſlue Papyrius (as he ſate) with hys ſworde, and therewith the ſlaughter being begun with one, all the reſidue of thoſe auncient fatherly men as they ſat in theyr Chayres were ſlaine and cruelly murthered.

1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “The Historie of Englande”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, page 26, columns 1–2:

The Prince of Morocco:
[…]By this scimitar,
That slew the Sophy and a Persian prince
That won three fields of Sultan Solyman,
I would outstare the sternest eyes that look,
Outbrave the heart most daring on earth,
Pluck the young sucking cubs from the she-bear,
Yea, mock the lion when he roars for prey,
To win thee, lady. […]

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

Slay not your children, fearing a fall to poverty, We shall provide for them and for you. Lo! the slaying of them is great sin.

1930, Marmaduke Pickthall, transl., The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, surah 17, verse 31:

"This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country. The heroes of my field have slain one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. While the heroes of your field gathered in the desert to create a new one."

2015 May 4, Randall Munroe, xkcd (webcomic), Degree-Off:

(transitive, now literary) To kill; to murder.


spin

en-verb

spin (third-person singular simple present spins, present participle spinning, simple past spun or (uncommon) span or (nonstandard) spinned, past participle spun or (nonstandard) spinned)

spins (present singular third-person)
spinning (participle present)
spun (past)
span (past uncommon)
spinned (nonstandard past)
spun (participle past)
spinned (nonstandard participle past)

From Middle English spinnen, from Old English spinnan, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁-. Compare Low German spinnen, Dutch spinnen, German spinnen, Danish spinde, Swedish spinna.

But then again, unless someone struck lucky in those first few hours, there weren't even enough detectives to spin a drum [house].

(UK, law enforcement, slang, transitive) To search rapidly.


sting

sting a sting (canonical)
stings (plural)

From Middle English stynge, sting, stenge, from Old English sting, stinċġ (“a sting, stab, thrust made with a pointed instrument; the wound made by a stab or sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stangiz.

The criminal gang was caught after a successful sting.

Shepard: I'm taking you in, Jax.
Turian Bodyguard: It's a sting. Bastard set us up.
Jax: What the hell are you playing at?

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:

(law enforcement) A police operation in which the police pretend to engage in criminal activity in order to catch a criminal.


box

en-noun

box (plural boxes or (nonstandard, computing, humorous) boxen)

boxes (plural)
boxen (humorous nonstandard plural)

Tok Pisin: bokis

→ Afrikaans: boks

→ Bengali: বাক্স (bakśo)

→ Bulgarian: бокс (boks)

→ Crimean Tatar: boks

→ Danish: boks

→ Dutch: box m

→ Faroese: boks

→ French: box m

→ German: Box f

→ Hindustani:

Hindi: बकस m (bakas), बक्सा m (baksā)

Urdu: بکس m (baks, bakas)

→ Icelandic: box n

→ Indonesian: boks

→ Irish: bosca m

→ Italian: box m

→ Japanese: ボックス (bokkusu)

→ Korean: 박스 (bakseu)

→ Maori: pāka

→ Marwari: बकस (baks, bakas)

→ Nepali: बाकस (bākas)

→ Norman: bosc m

→ Norwegian: boks m

→ Pashto: بکس (baks)

→ Persian: باکس (bâks)

→ Polish: boks m

→ Portuguese: box m

→ Russian: бокс m (boks)

→ Scottish Gaelic: bogsa m, bocsa

→ Spanish: box m

→ Swedish: box c

→ Welsh: bocs

Etymology tree
Ancient Greek πῠ́ξος (pŭ́xos)
Ancient Greek -ις (-is)
Ancient Greek πυξίς (puxís)bor.
Late Latin buxisbor.
Proto-West Germanic *buhsā
Old English box
Middle English box
English box
From Middle English box (“container, box, cup”), from Old English box (“box, case”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhsā (“box”) from Late Latin buxis (“box”), Latin pyxis (“small box for medicines or toiletries”), of uncertain origin; compare Ancient Greek πύξος (púxos, “box or tablet made of boxwood; box; cylinder”) and Ancient Greek πυξίς (puxís, “box or tablet made of boxwood; box; cylinder”). Doublet of piseog, pyx, and pyxis.
Cognate with Middle Dutch bosse, busse (“jar; tin; round box”) (modern Dutch bos (“wood, forest”), bus (“container, box; bushing of a wheel”)), Old High German buhsa (Middle High German buhse, bühse, modern German Büchse (“box; can”)), Swedish bössa (“box”).
The humorous plural form boxen is from box + -en, by analogy with oxen.

rasia

compartment or receptacle for receiving items

ramme

rectangular border around an image, text, etc.

ruutu

small area on a document for a tick mark

tofu

empty box displayed by some computer systems in place of a character not supported by available fonts

“I dare say the sheriff, or the mayor and corporation, or some of those sort of people, would give him money enough, for the use of it, to run him up a mighty pretty neat little box somewhere near Richmond.”

1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, III.vi.9:

Suburban villas, highway-ſide retreats, / That dread th' encroachment of our growing ſtreets, / Tight boxes, neatly ſaſh'd, and in a blaze / With all a July ſun's collected rays, / Delight the citizen, who gaſping there, / Breathes clouds of duſt and calls it country air.

1782, William Cowper, “Retirement”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 282:

What can a man know of a country or its people, who, merely passes through the former in a stage coach? […] Such were the arguments by which I induced myself to undertake a pedestrian trip to join my friend at his shooting-box, some hundred and fifty miles from Carlisle, where I had arrived from London; business compelling me to take that route.

[1840?], [John Mackay] Wilson, “The Runaway”, in Wilson’s Historical, Traditionary, and Imaginative Tales of the Borders, and of Scotland: […], volume VI, number 273, Manchester: Published by James Ainsworth, […]; London: E. T. Brain & Co., […]; New York, N.Y.: R. T. Shannon, →OCLC, page 97:

Senses relating to a three-dimensional object or space.


cover

en-verb

cover (third-person singular simple present covers, present participle covering, simple past and past participle covered)

covers (present singular third-person)
covering (participle present)
covered (participle past)
covered (past)

→ German: covern

→ Danish: lave en cover

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-?
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm
Proto-Italic *kom
Old Latin com
Latin cum
Latin con-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-?
Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi
Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer-
Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
Latin operiō
Latin cooperiō
Old French covrirbor.
Middle English coveren
English cover
From Middle English coveren, borrowed from Old French covrir, cueuvrir (modern French couvrir), from Late Latin coperire, from Latin cooperiō (“I cover completely”), from co- (intensive prefix) + operiō (“I close, cover”). Displaced native Middle English thecchen and bethecchen (“to cover”) (from Old English þeccan, beþeccan (“to cover”)), Middle English helen, (over)helen, (for)helen (“to cover, conceal”) (from Old English helan (“to conceal, cover, hide”)), Middle English wrien, (be)wreon (“to cover”) (from Old English (be)wrēon (“to cover”)), Middle English hodren, hothren (“to cover up”) (from Low German hudren (“to cover up”)).
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the original sense of the verb and noun cover was “hide from view” as in its cognate covert. Except in the limited sense of “cover again”, the word recover is unrelated and is cognate with recuperate. Cognate with Spanish cubrir (“to cover”).

cog

(military, law enforcement, transitive) To protect using an aimed firearm and the threat of firing; or to protect using continuous, heaving fire at or in the direction of the enemy so as to force the enemy to remain in cover; or to threaten using an aimed firearm.


collar

en-verb

collar (third-person singular simple present collars, present participle collaring, simple past and past participle collared)

collars (present singular third-person)
collaring (participle present)
collared (participle past)
collared (past)

From Middle English coler, borrowed from Old French coler (Modern French collier), from Late Latin collāre, from Latin collāris, from collum (“neck”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐍃 (hals, “neck”), Old English heals (“neck”). Compare Spanish cuello (“neck”). More at halse.

(law enforcement, transitive) To arrest.


cuckoo

cuckoo (third-person singular simple present cuckoos, present participle cuckooing, simple past and past participle cuckooed)

cuckoos (present singular third-person)
cuckooing (participle present)
cuckooed (participle past)
cuckooed (past)

From Middle English cokkou, kokkow, cukkuk, gokkouȝ, probably from Old French cocu, coquu, cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”). Compare dialectal English gowkoo (“cuckoo”). Displaced Middle English gnokken (“cuckoo”) and native Middle English yeke, ȝek (from Old English ġēac (“cuckoo”)), see English gowk.

She'll have been cuckooed. That'll be the Knezevics. They can't launder fast enough, so what do you do with it? Where do you put it? You hide it in somebody else's place; somebody who han't got a clue what's going on and couldn't do a fat lot about it if they did.

2023, Sally Wainwright, 26:06 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire):

(UK, law enforcement) To take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.


ice

Bislama: aes

→ Brunei Malay: ais

→ Japanese: アイス (aisu)

→ Korean: 아이스 (aiseu)

→ Malay: ais

→ Marshallese: aej, aij

→ Sinhalese: අයිස් (ayis)

→ Tokelauan: aiha

From Middle English is, from Old English īs (“ice”), from Proto-West Germanic *īs, from Proto-Germanic *īsą (“ice”) from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyH- (“ice, frost”).
Cognates
See also Saterland Frisian Íes, West Frisian iis, Dutch ijs, German Low German Ies, German Eis, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish is; also Lithuanian ýnis (“glazed frost”), Russian и́ней (ínej, “hoarfrost”), Ossetian их (ix), ех (ex, “ice”), Persian یخ (yax), Northern Kurdish qeş. Superseded non-native Middle English glace (“ice”), borrowed from Old French glace (“ice”).

der

Elephant or rhinoceros ivory that has been poached and sold on the black market.

An artifact that has been smuggled, especially one that is either clear or shiny.

Theater operators, theater party agents, playwrights, and others who have ready access to tickets may get in on the “ice” and sometimes the producer is in on it too.

1960, United States. Congress, Congressional Record:

This “ice” is bribe money paid to public officials to purchase protection for illegal activities. […] Just consider the “ice” money available to the men involved in the examples just cited.

1970, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates:

There were times when she could tell the Washingtons were overwhelmed by Jahlil's difficult ways, and one time Jessie even had the nerve to ask Carmiesha if she had smoked anything like crack or ice while she was pregnant with him.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 122:

(drugs) The crystal form of amphetamine-based drugs.


tit

From Middle English tit, titte, tette, from Old English tit, titt, from Proto-West Germanic *titt, from Proto-Germanic *tittaz (“teat; nipple; breast”), of expressive origin.
Perhaps related to an original meaning “to suck”; compare Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-y-. Doublet of teat, which was borrowed from Old French.
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tit, Dutch tiet, dialectal Dutch tet, German Zitze, Titte, Hunsrik Ditz, Yiddish ציצע (tsitse).

onomatopoeic

expressive

I have enjoyed taking to my writing bureau and writing about poverty, benefit reform and the coalition government in the manner of a shit Dickens, or Orwell, but with tits.

2012, Caitlin Moran, Moranthology, Ebury Press, published 2012, page 13:

Sanch tossed his head back, threw open his shirt, cupped his beanbag-shaped male breasts and jiggled them at us. Ford and I were laughing but Kat said, "I think they're the most beautiful tits."

Sun readers don't care who runs the country as long as she's got big tits.

1987, “A Conflict of Interest”, in Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, directors, Yes, Prime Minister, season 2, episode 4, spoken by Bernard Woolley (Derek Fowlds), BBC2:

(slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A person's breast or nipple.

Look at that tit driving on the wrong side of the road!

I know a lot of tits, Guv'nor. But I don't know any quite as fucking stupid as these two.

2000, Guy Ritchie, Snatch (motion picture), spoken by Errol (Andy Beckwith):

“What did you say to the cops?”
“I told them everything about the smuggling ring.”
“Why the fuck did you do that?”
“They were nice to me.”
“They’re always nice to people they want to get information from, you dumb tit.”

2002, Dick Plamondon, Have You Ever Been Screwed, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 234:

John Watson (to Sherlock Holmes): It's Lestrade. Says they're all coming over here right now. Queuing up to slap on the handcuffs, every single officer you ever made feel like a tit. Which is a lot of people.

2012 January 15, Stephen Thompson, "The Reichenbach Fall", episode 2-3 of Sherlock, 00:52:46-00:52:55

“I asked Nandor and Colin Robinson to come with me on the first day because I didn't want the class to look too empty. But now I cannot get those two tits to leave.”

2023 August 17, Jeremy Levick & Rajat Suresh, “Hybrid Creatures” (5:12 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 7, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):

(UK, Ireland, derogatory, slang) An idiot; a fool.

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer; a "tithead".


tit

Probably of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; found earliest in titling and titmouse; compare Faroese títlingur, dialectal Norwegian titling (“small stockfish”).
Wikispecies

A chickadee; a small passerine bird of the genus Parus or the family Paridae, common in the Northern Hemisphere.

Any of various other small passerine birds.


pull

en-verb

pull (third-person singular simple present pulls, present participle pulling, simple past and past participle pulled)

pulls (present singular third-person)
pulling (participle present)
pulled (participle past)
pulled (past)

push

antonym(s) of “apply force to (something) so it comes towards one”

-ʊl (accents with foot–goose merger or full–fool merger)

Verb from Middle English pullen, from Old English pullian (“to pull, draw, tug, pluck off”), of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to West Frisian pûlje (“to shell, husk”), Middle Dutch pullen (“to drink”), Middle Dutch polen (“to peel, strip”), Low German pulen (“to pick, pluck, pull, tear, strip off husks”), Icelandic púla (“to work hard, beat”).
Noun from Middle English pul, pull, pulle, from the verb pullen (“to pull”).

cog

it's not the whistle that pulls the train

pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire

The state trooper pulled me for going 60 in a 55 zone.

(transitive, law enforcement) To pull over (a driver or vehicle); to detain for a traffic stop.


stone

en-verb

stone (third-person singular simple present stones, present participle stoning, simple past and past participle stoned)

stones (present singular third-person)
stoning (participle present)
stoned (participle past)
stoned (past)

From Middle English ston, stone, stan, from Old English stān, from Proto-West Germanic *stain, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz, from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”).
See also West Frisian stien, Saterland Frisian Steen, Dutch steen, German Stein, Danish and Swedish sten, Norwegian stein; also Russian стена́ (stená, “wall”), Ancient Greek στία (stía, “pebble”), στέαρ (stéar, “tallow”), Albanian shtëng (“hardened or pressed matter”), Sanskrit स्त्यायते (styāyate, “it hardens”)). Doublet of stein.

cog

She got stoned to death after they found her.

55 But hee being full of the holy Ghost, looked vp stedfastly into heauen, and saw the glory of God, and Iesus standing on the right hand of God,
56 And said, Behold, I see the heauens opened, and the Sonne of man standing on the right hand of God.
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their eares, and ran vpon him with one accord,
58 And cast him out of the citie, and stoned him: and the witnesses layd downe their clothes at a yong mans feete, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Steuen, calling vpon God, and saying, Lord Iesus receiue my spirit.
60 And he kneeled downe, and cried with a loud voice, Lord lay not this sinne to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleepe.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 7:55–60:

(transitive) To pelt with stones, especially to kill by pelting with stones.


burglary

en-noun

burglary (countable and uncountable, plural burglaries)

From New Latin burglaria. Equivalent to burglar + -y. Displaced native Old English hūsbryċe (literally “house-breach”).

ncog

breaking and entering
breaking and entering

The crime of unlawfully breaking into a vehicle, house, store, or other enclosure with the intent to steal.

(law) Under the common law, breaking and entering of the dwelling of another at night with the intent to commit a felony.


massacre

en-noun

massacre (countable and uncountable, plural massacres)

1580, from Middle French massacre, from Old French macacre, marcacre, macecre, macecle (“slaughterhouse, butchery”), usually thought to be deverbal from Old French macecrer, macecler (“to slaughter”), though the noun seems to be attested somewhat earlier. It is also found in Medieval Latin mazacrium (“massacre, slaughter, killing”, also “the head of a newly killed stag”). Further origin disputed:
* From Latin macellum (“butcher shop”).
* From Vulgar Latin *matteuculāre, from *matteuca (cf. massue), from Late Latin mattea, mattia, from Latin mateola.
* From Middle Low German *matskelen (“to massacre”) (compare German metzeln (“massacre”)), frequentative of matsken, matzgen (“to cut, hew”), from Proto-West Germanic *maitan, from Proto-Germanic *maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *mei- (“small”). Akin to Old High German meizan (“to cut”) among others.
* Note also Arabic مَجْزَرَة (majzara), originally “spot where animals are slaughtered”, now also “massacre”, and in Maghrebi Arabic “slaughterhouse”. Derived from جَزَرَ (jazara, “to cut, slaughter”).

der

The tyrannous and bloody act is done,—
The most arch deed of piteous massacre
That ever yet this land was guilty of.

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):


bribe

From Middle English bribe, from Old French briber (“go begging”), from the noun bribe (“a gift”).

you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours

c. 1613-1625, Henry Hobart, Yardly v. Ellill
Undue reward for anything against justice is a bribe.

The bribes I took did not influence me to become evil. I was evil from the beginning and the bribes were merely a bonus

2024 June 17, @InternetHippo, Twitter, archived from the original on 2024-06-29:

Something (usually money) given in exchange for influence or as an inducement to breaking the law.

လက်ဖက်ရည်ဖိုး (lakhpak-ranyhpui:, literally “tea money”)

ค่าน้ำร้อนน้ำชา (kâa-nám-rɔ́ɔn-nám-chaa, literally “cost of hot water and tea”)


PS

en-noun

PS (countable and uncountable, plural PSes or PSs)

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


EOD

(military, law enforcement) Initialism of explosive ordnance disposal.


hold up

en-verb

hold up (third-person singular simple present holds up, present participle holding up, simple past and past participle held up)

holds up (present singular third-person)
holding up (participle present)
held up (participle past)
held up (past)

The guy tried to hold up a bank.

(idiomatic) To detain by threatening, usually with a weapon, in order to commit robbery.


nick

The noun is derived from Late Middle English nik (“notch, tally; nock of an arrow”). Its further etymology is unknown; a connection with nock (“notch in a bow to hold the bowstring; notch at the rear of an arrow that fits the bowstring; cleft in the buttocks”) has not been clearly established.
The verb appears to be derived from the noun, though the available evidence shows that some of the verb senses predate the noun senses. No connection with words in Germanic languages such as Danish nikke (“to nod”), Middle Dutch nicken (“to bend; to bow”) (modern Dutch knikken (“to nod”)), Middle Low German nicken (“to bend over; to sink”), Middle High German nicken (“to bend; to depress”) (modern German nicken (“to nod”)), Middle Low German knicken (“to bend; to snap”) (modern German knicken (“to bend; to break”), Old Frisian hnekka (“to nod”), and Swedish nicka (“to nod”), has been clearly established.

unknown

further etymology is unknown

cog

He was arrested and taken down to Sun Hill nick [police station] to be charged.

He’s just been released from Shadwell nick [prison] after doing ten years for attempted murder.

I recall too that the chats in the back of the [police] van weren't too bad as they dispatched me to the nick.

2014, Russell Brand, “I am an Anarchist-a”, in Revolution, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 81:

Poor Billy, he got seven years and he died in the nick in Liverpool in January 1958. Tragedy, he was such a good man, the best. He had a big funeral back in Clerkenwell. Eva went to it. I was in the nick down south at the time.

2019 June 6, Frankie Fraser, James Morton, Mad Frank's Diary: The Confessions of Britain’s Most Notorious Villain, Random House, →ISBN:

“They say he's a friend of Stuart's who he met in the nick down south. No one in Brisbane knows him.” “Not that anyone would admit to it anyway.”

2021 March 23, William Stokes, The Riddle Exposed:: The Whiskey Firebombing's Link to the McCulkin Family Murders, Interactive Publications, →ISBN, page 80:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, law enforcement, slang) A police station or prison.


nick

en-verb

nick (third-person singular simple present nicks, present participle nicking, simple past and past participle nicked)

nicks (present singular third-person)
nicking (participle present)
nicked (participle past)
nicked (past)

unknown

further etymology is unknown

The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he’d broken into.

Flick knives were pulled on us, and the group demanded we give them all our money, and passports and everything else we had. [...] They [the police] had nicked the knife gang, (who had stayed there, beating the shit out of Nick), and found our passports.

2012, T. Appleby, “Die in Dunkirk or Somewhere in France”, in Life in the Harsh Lane: The Nine Lives, Mishaps, and Adventures of a No-body, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 113:

[...] I was always getting nicked when I was a junkie, so I've had my fair share of skirmishes with the law.

(transitive, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, law enforcement, slang) To arrest.


PPV

en-noun

PPV (countable and uncountable, plural PPVs)

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of police pursuit vehicle.


corrupt

en-verb

corrupt (third-person singular simple present corrupts, present participle corrupting, simple past and past participle corrupted)

corrupts (present singular third-person)
corrupting (participle present)
corrupted (participle past)
corrupted (past)

From Middle English corrupten, derived from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpō (“to destroy, ruin, injure, spoil, corrupt, bribe”), from com- (“together”) + rumpō (“to break in pieces”).

he entrails, which are the parts aptest to corrupt

1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VIII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

[…] Lanfrank takes Notice of Tract. 3. Doct. 3. cap. 18. ſaying, "I have ſeen many who being full of Humours, have made an Iſſue under the Knee, before due Purgation had been premis'd; whence, by reaſon of the too great Defluxion of Humours, the Legs tumified, ſo that the cauterized Place corrupted, and a Cancer (or rather cacoethic Ulcer) was thereby made, with which great Difficulty was cur'd."

1732, George Smith, Institutiones Chirurgicæ: or, Principles of Surgery, … To which is Annexed, a Chirurgical Dispensatory, …, London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Henry Lintot, at the Cross-Keys against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, →OCLC, page 254:

(archaic, intransitive) To become putrid, tainted, or otherwise impure; to putrefy; to rot.


PC

en-noun

PC (countable and uncountable, plural PCs)

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

previous conviction
previous conviction#English

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of previous conviction.


PC

Philippine Constabulary
w:Philippine Constabulary

(Philippines, law enforcement, historical) Initialism of Philippine Constabulary.


screw

From Middle English screw, scrue (“screw”); apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue (“nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole”), from Latin scrōfa (“female pig”) through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's penis. There is also the Old French escruve (“screw”), from Old Dutch *scrūva ("screw"; whence Middle Dutch schruyve (“screw”)), which probably influenced or conflated with the aforementioned, resulting in the Middle English word.
more on the etymology of screw
Old French escroue (whence Medieval Latin scrofa (“nut, screwhole”)), is believed to be an adaptation of Latin scrōfa (“sow, female pig”); but this development is not found in other Romance languages. (For change in meaning, compare also Spanish puerca, Portuguese porca, both ‘sow; screw nut’, and is based on the fact that a boar's penis has a screw-like tip, making the sow's vulva equivalent to a screw nut by analogy).
Old Dutch *scrūva possibly derives from Proto-Germanic *skrūbō (“screw”), from *skru- (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keru-, *(s)ker- (“to cut”), and is related to German Schraube (“screw”), Low German schruve, schruwe (“screw”), Dutch schroef (“screw”), West Frisian skroef (“screw”), Danish skrue (“screw”), Swedish skruv (“screw, peg”), Icelandic skrúfa (“screw”).
Compare also Occitan escrofa (“screw nut”), Calabrese scrufina (“screw nut”), which may be borrowings of the Old French word, or parallel developments.

gloss

"screw"; whence Middle Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="dum">schruyve</i> (“screw”)

cog

the first turn of the screw pays all debts

A device that has a helical function.
An Archimedes screw.

If I don't go back to my boy friend he'll be as mad as hell. He's a sulky brute, but Christ, he's a good screw.

1944, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 5, in The Razor’s Edge […], 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., →OCLC, section ii, page 211:

"Swear it!" Kathleen screamed. "Let her know that she's just another screw. Because, darling, that's all you are. So go on, tell her!"

1990, Susan Lewis, Stolen Beginnings, HarperPaperbacks, published 1992, →ISBN, page 122:

She was just a girl, like any of the girls he had had so easily, just another screw.

1993, William Gill, Fortune's Child, HarperCollins Canada, published 1994, →ISBN, page 42:

Mary was Eli's favorite screw because she was clean, pretty, a good mother, funny, and alway was able to make herself available for their twice a week fucks as easily as he was.

2009, Sam Moffie, The Book of Eli, Mill City Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 6:

(vulgar, slang) A casual sexual partner.


II

“When I came here eight years ago, it was easy to spot an II (illegal immigrant),” one British official here said. “They came across in dark navy clothes. Now, they come in designer T-shirts and Levis, and it’s hard to tell them from residents of Hong Kong.”

1987 April 11, Jim Mann, “Border Net Porous : Hong Kong: Old Magnet for Chinese”, in Los Angeles Times:

Hong Kong can also follow the international trend of phasing out the rule that a child born by an II will automatically be granted citizenship of the place where he or she is born, in order to eradicate the problems of stowaways and II children.

1995 February 22, parliamentary debates (Hong Kong Legislative Council), page 2228:

The spokesman urged the Mainlanders not to put their lives at risk because hiding underneath a goods vehicle is very dangerous. He also reiterated that all IIs caught will be repatriated immediately, and their aidors and abettors prosecuted accordingly.

1999 March 2, “Truck Driver Arrested for Arranging IIs to Hong Kong”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

Conveying a wrong message that an II could not be repatriated once he succeeded in seeking legal aid for court proceedings on his ROA claim might result in a massive influx of IIs and large number of overstayers.

2000 January 18, parliamentary debates (Hong Kong Legislative Council), page 5:

When there is sudden rustling of grasses and the weather is calm, you may guess that there must be something moving in the grass patch but ...What is it? A bird? A dog? An II (Illegal Immigrant)? Or a porcupine?

2002 December, David Poon, “Ting Kok: a conservation issue”, in Porcupine, page 19:

illegal immigrant
illegal immigrant#English

(Hong Kong) Initialism of illegal immigrant.


crook

From Middle English croke, crok, from Old English *crōc (“hook, bend, crook”), from Proto-West Germanic *krōk, from Proto-Germanic *krōkaz (“bend, hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *greg- (“tracery, basket, bend”).
Cognate with Dutch kreuk (“a bend, fold, wrinkle”), Middle Low German kroke, krake (“fold, wrinkle”), Danish krog (“crook, hook”), Swedish krok (“crook, hook”), Icelandic krókur (“hook”).

der

1973 November 17, Richard Nixon, reported 1973 November 18, The Washington Post, Nixon Tells Editors, ‘I'm Not a Crook’,
"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I′m not a crook. I′ve earned everything I′ve got."

A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal.

fırıldaqçı

a criminal who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things


venal

en-adj

venal (comparative more venal, superlative most venal)

more venal (comparative)
most venal (superlative)

Borrowed from French vénal, from Old French venel, from Latin vēnālis (“for sale”), from vēnum (“something for sale”); compare English vend.

Though there is a disposition in mankind, to declaim against the corruption and peculation of the present times, as being more venal than formerly; yet, if we look back to different periods, we shall find statesmen and politicians, as selfish and corrupt, […] as those who have lately figured on the political stage.

1785, The Times, 9 Feb 1785, page 1, column C


pyramid scheme

An illicit money-making investment scheme whereby early investors are paid primarily or wholly by later investors. Eventually all such schemes fail to the detriment of recent (later) investors.


Mountie

(Canada, informal, law enforcement) A member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

(Canada, informal, historical, law enforcement) A member of the North West Mounted Police

(US, informal, law enforcement) A law officer, particularly one patrolling rural highways.


incarcerate

en-verb

incarcerate (third-person singular simple present incarcerates, present participle incarcerating, simple past and past participle incarcerated)

incarcerates (present singular third-person)
incarcerating (participle present)
incarcerated (participle past)
incarcerated (past)

/ɪnˈkɑː.səˌɹeɪt/

/ɪnˈkɑɹ.səˌɹeɪt/

From Medieval Latin incarcerātus, past participle of incarcerō (“to imprison”), from Latin in- (“in”) + carcer (“a prison”), meaning "put behind lines (bars)" – Latin root is of a lattice or grid. Related to cancel (“cross out with lines”) and chancel (“area behind a lattice”). See also carcerate and cancer.

Tolokonnikova has also been an effective public speaker even while incarcerated, but she has spoken out on politics and freedom in general rather than prisoners’ rights.

2013 September 23, Masha Gessen, “Life in a Russian Prison”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-09-24:

(chiefly US) To lock away; to imprison, especially for breaking the law.


disincarcerate

disincarcerate (third-person singular simple present disincarcerates, present participle disincarcerating, simple past and past participle disincarcerated)

disincarcerates (present singular third-person)
disincarcerating (participle present)
disincarcerated (participle past)
disincarcerated (past)

(obsolete, transitive) To liberate from prison.


shanghai

shanghai (third-person singular simple present shanghais, present participle shanghaiing, simple past and past participle shanghaied or shanghai'd)

shanghais (present singular third-person)
shanghaiing (participle present)
shanghaied (participle past)
shanghaied (past)
shanghai'd (participle past)
shanghai'd (past)

1871, from the important Chinese port Shanghai, as a verb with reference to the former practice by some shippers on the West Coast of the United States of press-ganging crews for fishing or shipping in the Pacific Ocean.

強迫 /强迫

to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship

(transitive) To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest, particularly

(US law enforcement slang) To trick a suspect into entering a jurisdiction in which they can be lawfully arrested.


tap

The noun is derived from Middle English tappe (“hollow device for controlling the flow of liquid from a hole, cock, faucet, spigot; hole through which the liquid flows; the liquid which thus flows”), from Old English tæppa, from Proto-West Germanic *tappō, from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“a plug, tap; peg; tapering stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p- (“to lose; to sacrifice”).
The verb is derived from Middle English tappen (“to obtain (liquid, chiefly liquor) from a tap; to obtain and sell (liquor)”), from Old English tæppian (“to provide (a container) with a stopper; to obtain (liquid) from a tap”), and then either:
* from Old English tæppa (see above) + -ian (suffix forming verbs); or
* from Proto-Germanic *tappōną, from *tappô (noun) (see above).
Verb sense 1.3.5 (“to turn over (a playing card or playing piece) to remind players that it has already been used in that round”) alludes to the abilities or resources of the card or piece having been drawn on to the point of temporary exhaustion: see verb sense 1.3.2.

rubinet

hollow device used to control the flow of a fluid — see also faucet

(communication, chiefly law enforcement)

A device used to listen in secretly on telephone calls or other communications.

salakuuntelulaite

telephone tap

It is true—and undisputed—that, in the weeks between the 2016 election and Trump's inauguration, several top Obama administration officials asked the National Security Agency to reveal the identity of an American citizen overheard on phone taps speaking with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak—a request known as "unmasking."

2020 May 14, Fred Kaplan, “‘Obamagate’ wasn’t even a Scandal the First Time”, in Slate, New York, N.Y.: The Slate Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-30:

A secret interception of telephone calls or other communications using such a device; also, a recording of such a communication.

подслу́шване

secret interception of telephone calls or other communications using such a device; recording of such a communication


tap

en-verb

tap (third-person singular simple present taps, present participle tapping, simple past and past participle tapped)

taps (present singular third-person)
tapping (participle present)
tapped (participle past)
tapped (past)
tap (infinitive)

точа

to draw off (a liquid) from a container or other source; to draw off a liquid from (a container or other source)

They can’t tap the phone without a warrant.

mitchener. Why didn't you telephone? / balsquith. They tap the telephone. Every switchboard in London is in their hands, or in those of their young men.

1909, [George] Bernard Shaw, Press Cuttings: A Topical Sketch […], London: Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 3:

On 3 May the Government decided to take over the Telephone Exchange, which had been operated since the beginning of the war mainly by C.N.T. workers; it was alleged that it was badly run and that official calls were being tapped.

1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XI, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC, pages 160–161:

"Oh, there is one thing," the Minister called after Lebel, "how did you know to tap the telephone line of Colonel Saint-Clair's private apartment?" Lebel turned in the doorway and shrugged. "I didn't," he said, "so last night I tapped all your telephones. Good day, gentlemen."

1971 August 6, Frederick Forsyth, “Anatomy of a Kill”, in The Day of the Jackal, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →ISBN, page 347:

Ever worry about shadowy forces tapping your phone calls and listening in on your private conversations? Well, astronomers have some good news for you: it won't be aliens with their ears (or whatever auditory sensory organs they have evolved) to the speaker getting into your business—unless they've done a lot better than we have at funding radio astronomers.

2023 May 23, “Is E.T. Eavesdropping on Our Phone Calls?”, in Scientific American, New York, N.Y.: Springer Nature America, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-10-03:

(communication, chiefly law enforcement) To connect a listening and/or recording device to (a communication cable or device) in order to listen in secretly on telephone calls or other communications; also, to secretly listen in on and/or record (a telephone call or other communication).

подслушвам

to connect a listening and/or recording device to (a communication cable or device) in order to listen in secretly on telephone calls or other communications; to secretly listen in on and/or record (a telephone call or other communication)


police officer

A peace officer who is a member of a police force.


score

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”). Cognate with Icelandic skora, Swedish skåra, Danish skår. Related to shear.
For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.

der

Let's pull a score!

Batman: Dangerous crowd you're stealing from.
Catwoman: Jesus. Is this how you get your kicks, hon? Sneaking up on girls in the dark?
Batman: Is that why you work in the club? It was all just a score?

2022, Matt Reeves, Peter Craig, The Batman:

(US, slang, crime) A criminal act, especially:

A criminal act, especially:
A bribe paid to a police officer.

He made a big score.

A criminal act, especially:
An illegal sale, especially of drugs.

A criminal act, especially:
A prostitute's client.


score

en-verb

score (third-person singular simple present scores, present participle scoring, simple past and past participle scored)

scores (present singular third-person)
scoring (participle present)
scored (participle past)
scored (past)
score (infinitive)

→⇒ Irish: scóráil

(transitive, intransitive) To obtain something desired.

(US, crime, slang, of a police officer) To extract a bribe.

To obtain something desired.
To extract a bribe.


shadow

en-noun

shadow (countable and uncountable, plural shadows)

From Middle English schadowe, schadewe, schadwe (also schade > shade), from Old English sċeaduwe, sċeadwe, oblique form of sċeadu (“shadow, shade; darkness; protection”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (“shade, shadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“darkness”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots scaddow, schaddow (“shadow”), Saterland Frisian Skaad (“shade, shadow”), Dutch schaduw (“shadow”), German Schatten (“shadow, shade”), Norwegian skodde (“fog, mist”), Irish scáth (“shadow”), Ancient Greek σκότος (skótos, “darkness, gloom”) (whence English scoto-).

cog

(UK, law enforcement) A trainee, assigned to work with an experienced officer.


knock off

en-verb

knock off (third-person singular simple present knocks off, present participle knocking off, simple past and past participle knocked off)

knocks off (present singular third-person)
knocking off (participle present)
knocked off (participle past)
knocked off (past)

→ Dutch: afnokken (calque)

In the verb sense of stopping work, said to be from the practice aboard slave galleys to have a man beat time for the rowers by knocking on a block or drum; when he stopped, the rowers could rest.

faligi

to remove by hitting, to hit (something) off

They decided to knock off a liquor store downtown.


criminologist

When he finished his stint in Brooklyn, Weisburd decided to team up with Larry Sherman, another young criminologist.

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

A person who is skilled in, or practices criminology.


panda

→ Malay: panda

→ Japanese: パンダ (panda)

→ Korean: 판다 (panda)

→ Tagalog: panda

→ Thai: แพนด้า (pɛn-dâa)

Borrowed from French panda, of unclear ultimate origin but probably from the second element of nigálya-pónya, a local name for the red panda recorded in Nepal and Sikkim by Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800 or 1801 – 1894), an ethnologist, naturalist and the British Resident of Nepal, possibly from Nepali निँगाले (nĩgāle, “relating to a certain species of bamboo”) (the adjectival form of निँगालो (nĩgālo), a variant of निङालो (niṅālo, “Drepanostachyum intermedium, a species of bamboo”)) + a regional Tibetan name for the animal (compare regional Tibetan ཕོ་ཉ (pho nya, “messenger”)).
Attributive uses of sense 2 (“giant panda”) generally refer to that animal’s distinctive black and white coat colour.

der

Before the confrontation, the youth sighted a police personnel carrier, two dog patrol vans, a motorway style car, at least two pandas and one unmarked police car.

1975, Darcus Howe, editor, Race Today, London: Race Today Collective, →OCLC, page 279:

(British, law enforcement, colloquial) Short for panda car (“a black-and-white police car”).


grease

en-verb

grease (third-person singular simple present greases, present participle greasing, simple past and past participle greased)

greases (present singular third-person)
greasing (participle present)
greased (participle past)
greased (past)

From Middle English grece, from Anglo-Norman grece, from Vulgar Latin *grassia, noun derived from Latin crassus (“fat, thick”).

the greas'd advocate that grinds the poor

1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Third Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

Then you remember we greased him to the tune of five hundred.

2008, Byron Archibald Dunn, With Lyon in Missouri:

His employee status didn't entitle him to one, but Magdy on reception would slip him a key if Sabr greased him with a fifty.

2009, Dan Richardson, GOG - an End Time Mystery:


fare

en-noun

fare (countable and uncountable, plural fares)

From Middle English fare, from the merger of Old English fær (“journey, road”) and faru (“journey, companions, baggage”), from Proto-Germanic *farą and *farō (“journey, fare”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“a going, passage”).

der

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

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


steel

I was lugged before the beak, who gave me six doss in the steel. [...] six months in the Bastille (the old House of Corrections), Coldbath Fields.

1862, Havelock Ellis, The Criminal, page 162:

He said he had been in the “steel” (Coldbath Fields Prison) eight times.

1866, George Augustus Sala, Edmund Hodgson Yates, Temple Bar, volume 16, page 507:

This time I got two moon for assaulting the reelers when canon. For this I went to the Steel (Bastile^([sic]) — Coldbath Fields Prison), having a new suit of clobber on me and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).

1879, Macmillan's Magazine, volume 40, page 502:

(UK, crime, slang, obsolete) Coldbath Fields Prison in London, closed in 1877.


mug

en-verb

mug (third-person singular simple present mugs, present participle mugging, simple past and past participle mugged)

mugs (present singular third-person)
mugging (participle present)
mugged (participle past)
mugged (past)

Early 16th century (originally Scots and northern English, denoting "earthenware, pot, jug"), of unknown origin, perhaps from North Germanic (compare Swedish mugg (“mug, jug”), Norwegian mugge (“pitcher, open can for warm drinks”), Danish mugge), or Low German mokke, mukke (“mug”), German Low German Muck (“drinking cup”), Dutch mok (“mug”), also of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Old English muga (“stack”) and Old Norse múgr (“mass, heap (of corn)”). Compare also Middle English mug, mog (“a measure of salt”).
"Face" sense possibly from grotesque faces on certain drinking vessels. "Assault" sense of verb possibly from hitting someone in the face.

cog

(transitive) To assault for the purpose of robbery.


ghost

en-verb

ghost (third-person singular simple present ghosts, present participle ghosting, simple past and past participle ghosted)

ghosts (present singular third-person)
ghosting (participle present)
ghosted (participle past)
ghosted (past)

Inherited from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst (which was the word for “spirit” as well as “ghost”; the original sense survives in Modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, derived from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”).
The ⟨h⟩ in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton's Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the ‘Holy Ghoost’, likely introduced by Caxton's assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, as a result of Flemish influence, where it was spelled gheest at the time. Doublet of geist.

His power base, however, is undermined by him being constantly, “ghosted”, or moved from prison to prison.

2020, Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight, Prisoners on Prison Films, page 26:

(transitive) To transfer (a prisoner) to another prison without the prior knowledge of other inmates.


pirate

→ Niuean: pairēti

From Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta, from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".

You should be cautious due to the Somali pirates.

(crime) A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns.


thief

From Middle English thef, theef, þef, from Old English þēof, from Proto-West Germanic *þeub, from Proto-Germanic *þeubaz. Spelling from Northern England, where /eːo/ became [iə] rather than [eː]. (Compare the spelling of deep from Old English deop.)

But hear you, my Worthy Brethren: do not you, where you see a thief in the candle, call presently for an extinguisher[…]

(obsolete) A waster in the snuff of a candle.


robber

Inherited from Middle English robbour, robbere, either directly taken from or from a calque of Old French robeor. Equivalent to rob + -er.
Compare reaver ("robber, plunderer"), a native English word derived from Proto-Germanic *raubārijaz that is ultimately of more or less the same composition as robber. And compare rover ("a pirate"), another word of the same composition.


killer

en-noun

killer (countable and uncountable, plural killers)

→ German: Killer

→ Italian: killer

→ Japanese: キラー (kirā)

→ Russian: ки́ллер (kíller)

From Middle English killer, kyller. By surface analysis, kill + -er.

There’s a killer on the loose.

My cat is a habitual bird killer.

Carbon monoxide is a silent killer.


burglar

/ˈbɜːɡlə(ɹ)/

-ɜː(ɹ)ɡlə(ɹ)

Borrowed from British Medieval Latin burglātor, from Old French burgeor (“burglar”), from Medieval Latin burgātor (“burglar”), from burgō (“to commit burglary”), from Late Latin burgus (“fortified town”), probably from Frankish *burg (“fortress”), from Proto-Germanic *burgz, *burgiją (“borough, watch-tower”). The -l- may have been inserted under influence from Latin latro (“thief”).

The burglar made off with a large diamond from the museum.

In the village itself his lionheartedness had been a legend ever since he had brained a burglar with a number seven iron, and the jury in Guildford had, despite the clear direction of the judge, resolutely declined to convict him for the use of unnecessary force.

2010, Louis De Bernières, Notwithstanding, →ISBN, page 82:

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:

A person who breaks in to premises with the intent of committing theft.


burgle

en-verb

burgle (third-person singular simple present burgles, present participle burgling, simple past and past participle burgled)

burgles (present singular third-person)
burgling (participle present)
burgled (participle past)
burgled (past)

In St. Louis, burglars burgle by daylight

1867 March 14, “This and That”, in Delaware Tribune, Wilmington, DE, page 1:

The New York World has coined a new verb -- "to burgle."

1867 August 24, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, page 8:

The language grows apace. A "cablegram" has been received, and $400 have been "burgled."

1868 February 13, Louisville Daily Courier, Louisvile, KY, page 4:

Burgled his safe and bolted with the tin.

1868, John Brougham, Much Ado About a Merchant of Venice, New York: Samuel French, page 13:

[S]he went and burgled three pears out of the dish ...

1869, Joanna H. Mathews, Bessie at School, London: James Nisbet & Co., page 183:

Conceive the Great Lexicographer admitting to his Dictionary such excrescencies as: "Burgle, verb active, To break into a dwelling-house,"

1870 February 5, “American Slangography”, in Punch, London, page 44:

Burglarize, to, a term creeping into journalism. ... The word has a dangerous rival in the shorter burgle.

1872, M. Schele De Vere, Americanisms: The English of the New World, New York: Charles Scribner, page 587:

When an American says, "I've been burgled" -- where an Englishman would say, "My house has been broken into by thieves" -- he succeeds in shortening the statement by more than half ...

1873 April 21, Albert Julius Mott, “Inaugural Address”, in Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, volume xxvii, London: Longman, Greens, Reader & Dyer, page 30:

Well, I hope to goodness the house won’t be burgled during the night.

1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Beryl Coronet”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2011:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To commit burglary.


burglarize

burglarize (third-person singular simple present burglarizes, present participle burglarizing, simple past and past participle burglarized)

burglarizes (present singular third-person)
burglarizing (participle present)
burglarized (participle past)
burglarized (past)

/ˈbɜː(ɹ)ɡləɹaɪz/

People who would now attempt to burglarize in top-boots, would be as mad as if they were to adopt that costume for picking pockets.

1829 July 5, [ William Hazlitt ?], “The Advantages of Committing Burglary in cuerpo Elucidated”, in The Atlas, London, page 442:

[M]en exclaim against you as the most bungling of "cabbagers" ... that ever burglarised upon the property of Shakespeare!

1839 December 7, "Mustard-Seed", “To Sir Charles Shaw, K. C. T. S., &c., &c.”, in Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, Manchester, page 6:

In this dilemma there were but two resources open to the infuriated stewards, -- one to carry the key vi et armis; the other, to burglarize the cellar.

1840 May 1, "Shamrock", “Steeple-Chasing in Ireland”, in The Sporting Review, London, page 364:

Deaseley Brothers & Dodge, wholesale dry goods store, was burglarized last night, and three thousand dollars worth of silks taken. No arrests.

1856 November 1, Louisville Daily Courier, Louisville, KY, page 3:

I also told you my house had been thoroughly burglarized three times,

1856 December 16, "The London Scoundrel", “A Plea for the Gallows (Letter to the Editor)”, in The Times, London, page 10:

We see in a telegraphic despatch from across the boundary line that a store was "burglarized" a short time ago.

1865 September, Upper Canada Law Journal, Toronto, page 228:

During a recent burglary epidemic a police superintendent one night made a tour of inspection through the burglarised district.

1903 March 31, “From Day To Day”, in The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, page 1:

This attempt to burglarize the house betrayed the caliber of the enemy.

1922, Victor Appleton, chapter 9, in Tom Swift And His Electric Locomotive, New York: Grossett and Dunlap, page 82:

Police said they believed the woman interrupted Harvey as he attempted to burglarize nearby cars.

2007 December 14, Robert Muirhead, “Man sent to prison for robbing woman at gunpoint”, in Journal Inquirer.com, Connecticut, page 228:

(transitive, intransitive, chiefly Canada, US) To commit burglary.


rob

rob (third-person singular simple present robs, present participle robbing, simple past and past participle robbed)

robs (present singular third-person)
robbing (participle present)
robbed (participle past)
robbed (past)

From Middle English robben, from Anglo-Norman robber, from Late Latin raubāre, from Frankish *raubōn (compare Dutch roven) and Old High German roubōn, raubōn (“to rob, steal, plunder”), from Proto-Germanic *raubōną. Doublet of reave.

The best way to rob a bank is to own one.

I never robbed the soldiers of their pay.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

(transitive) To deprive of, or withhold from, unjustly or injuriously; to defraud.

Her house was robbed.

2008 September 4, National Public Radio, All Things Considered:


thieve

thieve (third-person singular simple present thieves, present participle thieving, simple past and past participle thieved)

thieves (present singular third-person)
thieving (participle present)
thieved (participle past)
thieved (past)

From Middle English *theven (found in Middle English thevinge (“thieving”)), from Old English þēofian, ġeþēofian, ġeþīefian (“to thieve, steal”).


job

→ Antillean Creole: djòb

→ French: job

→ Louisiana Creole: djòb

From the phrase jobbe of work (“piece of work”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a variant of Middle English gobbe (“mass, lump”); or perhaps related to Middle English jobben (“to jab, thrust, peck”), or Middle English choppe (“piece, bargain”). More at gob, jab, chop.

der

“He was ex-job, Beavis. Detective sergeant out of County, Banbury, retired in ‘59.”

2018 February 11, Colin Dexter, Russell Lewis, 14:17 from the start, in Endeavour(Cartouche), season 5, episode 2 (TV series), spoken by DS Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans):

But there it was on the screen: The personal details of his old colleague from Kennington station in the late nineties.[…]She’s job. We used to work together.

2018 July 24, Chris Merritt, Last Witness:A Gripping Crime Thriller You Won’t Be Able To Put Down:

“I’m job, D.S Townsend. I have to report a missing person.”

2022 February 9, Daragh Carville, Richard Clark, Furquan Akhtar, 01:33 from the start, in The Bay, season 3, episode 5, spoken by D.S Jenn Townsend (Marsha Thomason):

The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

w:A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

(UK, slang, law enforcement) The police as a profession, act of policing, or an individual police officer.


in flagrante delicto

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-in flagrante delicto.wav

Unadapted borrowing from Medieval Latin in flagrante delicto (literally “while the crime is blazing”), from in + flāgrō (“burn”) + dēlictō, form of dēlictum (“crime, misdeed”).

ubor

We've already established that you were one of Miss Scarlet's clients. That's why you were so desperate to get your hands on those negatives. Photographs of you and Yvette in flagrante delicto, remember?

1985, Jonathan Lynn, Clue, spoken by Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull):

I would add to that the fact that, if we are happy to be caught in flagrante delicto in a picturesque setting, there would be something almost humiliating about being caught somewhere as ugly as that.

2002, Adriana Hunter, transl., The Sexual Life of Catherine M., translation of La Vie Sexuelle de Catherine M. by Catherine Millet, page 146:

When his housemates, two men and a woman, found them in flagrante delicto, one reported, “She said she didn’t want us to think of her as ‘that girl.’ ”

2015 February 8, Naomi Schaefer Riley, “Columbia mattress rape case is not justice — it’s shaming without proof”, in New York Post:

As a student of the fossil record, I can assure you that it’s not often that creatures are transformed, in flagrante delicto, into memento mori.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 65:


bobby

Bro I’m booky, I’ll take your food if my belly starts rumblin
They rap about bootings, they ain’t blammed nobody
Hold that properly when I bang that dotty
I put sniff in a rex, and I slang that bobby

2017, “Next Up?”, Digga D (lyrics), performed by 1011 (Digga D x Sav'O x T.Y):


IP

en-noun

IP (countable and uncountable, plural IPs)

(law enforcement) Initialism of injured party.


murder

en-verb

murder (third-person singular simple present murders, present participle murdering, simple past and past participle murdered)

murders (present singular third-person)
murdering (participle present)
murdered (participle past)
murdered (past)

From Middle English murder, murdre, mourdre, alteration of earlier murthre (“murder”) (see murther), from Old English morþor (“secret slaying, unlawful killing”) and Old English myrþra (“murder, homicide”), both from Proto-West Germanic *morþr, from Proto-Germanic *murþrą (“death, killing, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥tro- (“killing”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *mor-, *mr̥- (“to die”). Akin to Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌸𐍂 (maurþr, “murder”), Old High German mord (“murder”), Old Norse morð (“murder”), Old English myrþrian (“to murder”) and morþ.
The -d- in the Middle English form may have been influenced in part by Anglo-Norman murdre, from Old French murdre, from Medieval Latin murdrum (whence the English doublet of murdrum), from Frankish *morþr, *murþr (“murder”), from the same Germanic root, though this may also have been wholly the result of internal development (compare burden, from burthen).
(crows): Attested at least since 1475.

inh

The woman found dead in her kitchen was murdered by her husband.

In the meane time it chaunced, that Marcus Papyrius ſtroke one of the Galles on the heade with his ſtaffe, because he preſumed to ſtroke his bearde: with whiche iniurie the Gaulle beeing prouoked, ſlue Papyrius (as he ſate) with hys ſworde, and therewith the ſlaughter being begun with one, all the reſidue of thoſe auncient fatherly men as they ſat in theyr Chayres were ſlaine and cruelly murthered.

1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “The Historie of Englande”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, page 26, columns 1–2:

To illegally kill (a person or persons) with intent, especially with predetermination


first-degree murder

en-noun

first-degree murder (countable and uncountable, plural first-degree murders)

(law, chiefly US, Canada) An act that constitutes the crime of first-degree murder.


murder in the first degree

murder in the first degree (countable and uncountable, plural murders in the first degree)

first-degree murder
first-degree murder#English


rub out

en-verb

rub out (third-person singular simple present rubs out, present participle rubbing out, simple past and past participle rubbed out)

rubs out (present singular third-person)
rubbing out (participle present)
rubbed out (participle past)
rubbed out (past)

Coordinate term: rub off

The teacher wanted to rub out the chalk marks on the blackboard.

(transitive) To delete or erase or remove (something) by rubbing, especially with a rubber (eraser).

It was just a week to the day since Mr. Martin had decided to rub out Mrs. Ulgine Barrows.

'Mr Grimaldi,' fills in Smoke, 'what I believe Fay has too much tact to spit out and say is this: the Rey woman might be imagining we rubbed out Dr Sixsmith.'

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

(transitive, criminal slang) To kill, especially to murder.


ticket

→ Assamese: টিকট (tikot)

desc

→ Bengali: টিকিট (ṭikiṭ), টিকট (ṭikoṭ), টিকেট (ṭikeṭ) — anglicized pronunciation

→ Catalan: tiquet

→ Dhivehi: ޓިކެޓް (ṭikeṭ)

→ Dutch: ticket
→ Indonesian: tiket

→ French: ticket

→ German: Ticket

→ Hindustani:

Hindi: टिकट (ṭikaṭ)

Urdu: ٹکٹ (ṭikaṭ)

→ Irish: ticéad

→ Italian: ticket

→ Japanese: チケット (chiketto)

→ Korean: 티켓 (tiket)

→ Malay: tiket

→ Maori: tīketi

→ Marathi: तिकीट (tikīṭ)

→ Nepali: टिकट (ṭikaṭ)

→ Odia: ଟିକଟ (ṭikaṭa)

→ Portuguese: tíquete, ticket (Brazil)

→ Scottish Gaelic: tiogaid

→ Serbo-Croatian: тикет (tiket)

→ Spanish: ticket, tique, tiquete

→ Tagalog: tiket

→ Tamil: டிக்கட்டு (ṭikkaṭṭu)

→ Tamil: டிக்கட்டு (ṭikkaṭṭu)

→ Tibetan: ཏི་ཀ་སི (ti ka si, “postage stamp”)

→ Tok Pisin: tiket

From Middle English ticket, from Middle French etiquet m, estiquet m, and etiquette f, estiquette f (“a bill, note, label, ticket”), from Old French estechier, estichier, estequier (“to attach, stick”), (compare Picard estiquier (“to stick, pierce”)), from Frankish *stikkjan, *stekan (“to stick, pierce, sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stikaną, *stikōną, *staikijaną (“to be sharp, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to stab”). Doublet of etiquette. More at stick.

der

Ticket in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

[…] I need a ticket, Bobby.” Agnor knew a ticket meant a search warrant.

1999, Doug Most, Always in Our Hearts, page 148:


detail

en-noun

detail (countable and uncountable, plural details)

Borrowed from Middle French détail, from Old French detail, from detaillier, from de- + taillier (“to cut”).

Frequently members of the small police detail dispatched to the scene joined in.

2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 7, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part II. The Neoliberal Order, 1970–2020:

(military, law enforcement) A temporary unit or assignment.


detail

en-verb

detail (third-person singular simple present details, present participle detailing, simple past and past participle detailed)

details (present singular third-person)
detailing (participle present)
detailed (participle past)
detailed (past)

Two years after England’s World Cup victory, Stiles was at Wembley again to help Manchester United become the first English team to win the European Cup final. Again Eusébio was one of his opponents, playing for Benfica, and again Stiles was detailed to keep him quiet. […]

2020 October 30, Brian Glanville, “Nobby Stiles obituary”, in The Guardian:

(transitive, military, law enforcement) To assign to a particular task.

komentaa

military: to assign to a particular task


jam sandwich

(UK, Ireland, slang) (from the common UK colour scheme of white with a red reflective horizontal band) A police car.


stale

From Middle English stale (“bird used as a decoy”), probably from uncommon Anglo-Norman estale (“pigeon used to lure hawks”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic, probably *standaną (“to stand”). Compare Old English stælhran (“decoy reindeer”) and Northumbrian stællo (“catching fish”).

der

Their mynisters, be false bretherne or false sustern, stales of the deuyll.

1526, W. Bonde, Pylgrimage of Perfection, section III:

This is Captain Whibble, the Towne stale, For all cheating imployments.

(crime, obsolete) An accomplice of a thief or criminal acting as bait.

Spare not to tell him, that he hath wronged his honor in marrying the renowned Claudio...to a contaminated stale.

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 23:

But to be leaft for such a one as she, The stale of all, what will folke thinke of me?

...detesting as he said the insatiable impudency of a prostitute Stale.

c. 1641, Ralph Montagu, Acts & Monuments, section 265:

(crime, obsolete) A prostitute of the lowest sort; any wanton woman.