prisoner

From Middle English prisoner, from Old French prisonier (compare Medieval Latin prisōnārius), equivalent to prison + -er.

The evidence disclosed that the three prisoners were in a public-house together with the prosecutor, Abraham Rhodes, and that in concert with the other two prisoners, the prisoner John Dewhirst placed a pencase on the table in the room where they were assembled, and left the room to get writing-paper.

1861, Edward William Cox, Reports of Cases in Criminal Law:

A person incarcerated in a prison, while on trial or serving a sentence.

And gainſt the General we will lift our ſwords / And either lanch his greedie thirſting throat, / Or take him priſoner, and his chaine ſhall ſerue / For Manackles, till he be ranſom’d home.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.

1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

presu

figurative: any person held against his or her will

I am no longer a prisoner to fear, for I am a child of God.

A person who is or feels confined or trapped by a situation or a set of circumstances.


dungeon

From Middle English dongeoun (“keep of a castle; dungeon; abyss, cave, den; whirlpool”), from Anglo-Norman donjun (“keep of a castle; keep used as a prison; dungeon”) and continental Old French donjon (“keep of a castle”), from Vulgar Latin *dominiōnem, seemingly derived from Latin dominus (“master, lord”) perhaps via some figurative sense like “dominant building”. Doublet of donjon. The sense of “prison (associated with a castle)”, first attested in Anglo-Norman (13th c.) and apparently never in continental Old French, likely developed in combination with Old English dung (“underground prison cell”), whence Middle English donge (“pit, abyss” - senses that are also attested for Middle English dongeoun).
The game term has been popularized by Dungeons & Dragons.

der

“pit, abyss” - senses that are also attested for Middle English <i class="Latn mention" lang="enm">dongeoun</i>

Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon.

1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:

An underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.

(obsolete) The main tower of a motte or castle; a keep or donjon.

torre mestra

the main tower of a motte or castle; a keep or donjon

(roleplaying games) An area inhabited by enemies, containing story objectives, treasure, and bosses.

(BDSM) A room dedicated to sadomasochistic sexual activity.


coop

Dutch Bantam
Marshall, Texas
Oxford English Dictionary
coop

From Middle English cǒupe, cupe, from Old English cȳpe (“basket, cask”) or possibly from Middle Dutch cûpe (compare modern Dutch kuip, Saterland Frisian kupe, Middle Low German kûpe), from Old Saxon *kûpa, côpa (“cask”) (compare Middle Low German kôpe, Old High German chôfa, chuofa, Middle High German kuofe, modern regional German Kufe f (“cask”)), probably from Latin cūpa, Medieval Latin cōpa (“cask”) (thus a doublet of coupe, cup, and keeve). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that if the word is from Latin, “it is difficult to account for the umlaut in Old English cýpe”.

'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

1785, William Cowper, “The Garden”, in The Task, a Poem, in Six Books. By William Cowper … To which are Added, by the Same Author, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools, and The History of John Gilpin, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul's Church-Yard, OCLC 221351486; republished as The Task. A Poem. In Six Books. To which is Added, Tirocinium: or, A Review of Schools, new edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed for Thomas Dobson, bookseller, in Second-street, second door above Chestnut-street, 1787, OCLC 23630717, page 87

Why think to shut up all things in your narrow coop, when we know there are not one or two only, but ten, twenty, a thousand things, and unlike?

1850, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Montaigne; or, the Skeptic”, in Representative Men. Seven Lectures, London: George Routledge & Co., Soho Square, →OCLC, page 94:

Lou Brent rolled from his cot, got to his feet on the floor of the tiny coop.

1929 September, Raoul F[alconia] Whitfield, “The Dog-Fight”, in Boys' Life, volume XIX, number 9, Irving, Tx.: Boy Scouts of America, →ISSN, page 18:

coop. A (gen., from ca. 1880, a country-town) prison: 1785, Sessions Papers of the Old Bailey, Sept., p. 1111, 'He has been in coop for a week'; […]

1968, Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American; being the Vocabularies of Crooks, Criminals, Racketeers, Beggars and Tramps, Convicts, the Commercial Underworld, the Drug Traffic, the White Slave Traffic, Spivs, 3rd edition, rev. and much enl., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, OCLC 311502654; republished as A Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American, Abingdon, Oxon.; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, ISBN 978-1-317-44552-4

(figuratively, slang) A narrow place of confinement, a cage; a jail, a prison.


coop

en-verb

coop (third-person singular simple present coops, present participle cooping, simple past and past participle cooped)

coops (present singular third-person)
cooping (participle present)
cooped (participle past)
cooped (past)

COOPING. The term cooping refers to police officers sleeping on duty. […] One critic of two-man squad cars suggests that this is a recipe for cooping, since one officer can drive while the other sleeps.

2001, Mitchel P. Roth, Historical Dictionary of Law Enforcement, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, pages 76–77:

One of his first, and most groundbreaking, stories was about "cooping," police slang for sleeping on duty. It was sparked when Burnham interviewed Jim Curran, then a New York City policeman, who referred to someone being "in the coop," Burnham recalled. […] Burnham heard that every day thousands upon thousands of New York police supposedly working the night shift were actually sleeping, stashed in coops all over the city, only to be awakened if a crime was discovered. […] Cooping was a natural result and a dramatic example of a city agency misusing its resources.

2010, Bill Kovach, Tom Rosenstiel, Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury USA, →ISBN, page 155:

The majority of policemen, […] act so as to save the public from harm, i.e., they shun their duties. Instead of being up and about, interfering with the rights of the people, many policemen choose the honorable way out—they coop. Cooping (sleeping in some out-of-the-way place while on duty) was a situation which enraged [Frank] Serpico. In the finest tradition of the busybody who insists on running other people's lives, Serpico insisted on being out on the streets at all hours, stopping a prostitute here, ambushing a gambler there, harassing drug merchants everywhere.

2012, Walter Block, Defending the Undefendable: The Pimp, Prostitute, Scab, Slumlord, Libeler, Moneylender, and Other Scapegoats in the Rogue's Gallery of American Society, Baltimore, Md.: Laissez Faire Books, →ISBN:

This cynicism may lead to an increased number of job actions and deviance, such as the "blue flu" or "cooping."

2012, Jeffrey Ian Ross, Policing Issues: Challenges and Controversies, Sudbury, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Learning, →ISBN, page 66:

Cooping-prone areas are those locations where officers tend to engage in non-police activities that interrupt patrols in an unauthorized manner. A variety of such locations can be surmised, such as spending time at home or other locations not in the officer's area of responsibility while on duty. The department provided the example of officers parking in desolate areas to sleep.

2015, Steven V. Gilbert, Barbara A. Gilbert, Police Corruption in the NYPD: From Knapp to Mollen, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, pages 116–117:

(intransitive, law enforcement, slang) Of a police officer: to sleep or relax while on duty.


kavass

From Ottoman Turkish قواس (kavvas, “guard, sentry”), derived from Arabic قوّاس (qawwās, “archer”), from Arabic قَوْس (qaws, “bow”).


illegal

en-adj

illegal (comparative more illegal, superlative most illegal)

more illegal (comparative)
most illegal (superlative)

Borrowed from French illégal, from Medieval Latin illegalis, from Latin legalis, by surface analysis, il- + legal. In senses relating to immigration, via clipping from illegal alien or illegal immigrant.

This is illegal, you know!

Nearly 40 million people live in UK areas with illegal air pollution

their illegal mining operations in Asia, Africa and elsewhere, are protected by officials and police paid to look the other way – and powerful customers in the construction industry who prefer not to ask too many questions.

In all times the Princes in England have done ſomething illegal to get Money: But then came a Parliament and all was well, the People and the Prince kiſt and were Friends, and ſo things were quiet for a while.

a. 1654, John Selden, “Money”, in Table-Talk, 3rd edition, London: Jacob Tonson, published 1716, page 74:

Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.

2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:

Contrary to or forbidden by law, especially criminal law.


thug

From Hindi ठग (ṭhag, “swindler, fraud, cheat”).
Thuggee was a network of gangs in India from the 17th century to the 19th century who robbed and murdered travellers, often by strangling and beating their victims to death. During British Imperial rule of India, many Indian words passed into common English, and by 1810 thug referred to a member of these Indian gangs. The sense was adopted more generally as "ruffian, cutthroat, and cruel robber" by 1839. Related to English thatch, deck.

rampokker

someone who treats others violently or roughly

(African-American Vernacular) One who, usually as a result of social disadvantage, has turned to committing crimes (e.g. selling drugs, robbery, assault, etc.) to make a living; a gangsta.


rig

From Early Modern English rygge, probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian rigge (“to bind up; wrap around; rig; equip”), Swedish dialectal rigga (“to rig a horse”), Faroese rigga (“to rig; to equip and fit; to make s.th. function”). Possibly from Proto-Germanic *rik- (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European *rign-, *reyg- (“to bind”); or related to Old English *wrīhan, wrīohan, wrēohan, wrēon (“to bind; wrap up; cover”). See also wry (“to cover; clothe; dress; hide”).

cog

When I saw a special version of Quake running on Voodoo hardware, I knew I would be forking out quite a bit of money on my gaming rig.

2004, Radford Castro, Let Me Play: Stories of Gaming and Emulation, page 104:

(slang, computing) A personal computer, typically one modified for looks.


trespass

en-verb

trespass (third-person singular simple present trespasses, present participle trespassing, simple past and past participle trespassed)

trespasses (present singular third-person)
trespassing (participle present)
trespassed (participle past)
trespassed (past)

From Middle English trespassen, borrowed from Old French trespasser (“to go across or over, transgress”), from tres- (“across, over”) + passer (“to pass”).

der

The dean trespassed the streaker from his university.

"You were trespassing on private property when you were taking pictures," he said, with no hint of courtesy. "I must trespass you. Come with me."

1996 April 16, Glenn Campbell, “Another Business Office Found”, in The Groom Lake Desert Rat, number 35, Rachel, NV, archived from the original on 1998-02-23:

The entire police force has in effect been trespassed from a Wellington property to stop officers checking whether a heavy-sleeping offender is complying with an overnight bail curfew.

2012 June 21, Greg O'Connor, “Criminal trespasses police officers”, in Stuff:

(transitive, law enforcement) To decree that a person shall be arrested for trespassing if he or she returns to someone else's land.


smuggle

en-verb

smuggle (third-person singular simple present smuggles, present participle smuggling, simple past and past participle smuggled)

smuggles (present singular third-person)
smuggling (participle present)
smuggled (participle past)
smuggled (past)

From earlier smuckle, either from Dutch smokkelen (“to smuggle”), a frequentative form of Middle Dutch smūken (“to act secretly, be sneaky”), or from Dutch Low Saxon or German Low German smuggeln. The Dutch and Low German words are both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *smeuganą (“to creep; slip through or into”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mewk-, *smewg- (“to slip, glide; be slimy”).
cognates and related terms
Cognate with Saterland Frisian smuggelje (“to smuggle”), West Frisian smokkelje (“to smuggle”), German Low German smuggeln, smuckeln (“to move insidiously, smuggle”), German schmuggeln (“to smuggle”), Danish smugle (“to smuggle”), Swedish smuggla (“to smuggle”). Related also to Icelandic smjúga (“to creep, penetrate”), Swedish smyga (“to sneak, slip, crawl, lurk, steal”), German schmiegen (“to nestle, wrap, snuggle”), Old English smēogan, smūgan (“to creep, crawl, move gradually, penetrate”).

cog

(slang) To thrash or be thrashed by a bear's claws, or to swipe at or be swiped at by a person's arms in a bearlike manner.


R&D

(business) Initialism of Research and Development (a department within a company (or governmental division) dedicated to that task, or the fiscal category that represents it in fiscal reporting.)

Research and Development

(prison) Initialism of Receiving and discharge or receiving and dismissal (a department or office through which inmates arrive at and leave a prison.)


genocide

en-noun

genocide (countable and uncountable, plural genocides)

Armenian genocide
Terminology of the Armenian genocide
The Holocaust
genocide

Coined by lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent Raphael Lemkin in 1943 or 1944 in reference to the Armenian Genocide (then known by other names; see: Terminology of the Armenian genocide) and the Jewish Holocaust. From the stem of Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “race, kind”) (cognate with Latin gēns (“tribe, clan”), whence genus) + -cide (“killing, killer”). Doublet of gendercide. Compare genticide.

der

For the German occupying authorities war thus appears to offer the most appropriate occasion for carrying out their policy of genocide.

1944, November, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, "Analysis of Government - Proposals for Redress", chapter 9, page 79

Shaddam IV: I want fifty legion of Sardaukar on Arrakis at once!
Subordinate: Fifty legions? That's our entire reserves as well.
Shaddam IV: This is genocide: the deliberate and systematic destruction of all life on Arrakis!

1984, 1:49:22 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), spoken by Shaddam IV, →OCLC:

Though most of the cases here cover European encounters with non-Europeans, it is not the intention of the book to give the impression that genocide is a function of European colonialism and imperialism alone.

2008 June 1, A. Dirk Moses, “Preface”, in Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page x:

A genocide will always be followed by the denial that it ever happened.

The systematic and deliberate destruction of a group of people, typically by killing substantial numbers of them, on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, or nationality.

(by extension) The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on other grounds.

ជនឃាត

cĕəʼnĕəʼkhiət

Native Americans in the twentieth century are no longer a "vanishing race" or a silent minority. They have survived centuries of cultural genocide inflicted on them by non-Native Americans— both the well-meaning and the self-seeking— […]

1986, James Stuart Olson, Raymond Wilson, Native Americans in the Twentieth Century, →ISBN:

(by extension) The systematic suppression of ideas or practices on the basis of cultural or ethnic origin; culturicide.

I used genocide in my first ascension, but have been genocideless ever since. Makes the game much more interesting, but then again, if one hasn't ascended yet, it will be interesting anyway.

2000, Kimmo Kasila, “Arch lich at Minetown bones, Help!”, in rec.games.roguelike.nethack (Usenet):

What an Extinctionist tries to do is completely eliminate as many kinds of monsters from the game as possible, either through genocide if it's available, or from just depleting all the kinds of monsters that can be produced.

2020, John Harris, Exploring Roguelike Games, CRC Press, →ISBN:

(video games, roguelikes) The elimination of an entire class of monsters by the player.


homicide

en-noun

homicide (countable and uncountable, plural homicides)

From Old French homicide, from Latin homicīda (“man-slayer”) and homicīdium (“manslaughter”).

(countable, uncountable, crime) The killing of one person by another, whether premeditated or unintentional.


favouritism

favouritism (countable and uncountable, plural favouritisms)

Heidi Alexander has experience of London. As Transport Secretary, she will also be under pressure not to show favouritism to the capital.

2024 December 27, Tom Edwards, “Network News: Can success in the capital transfer to the wider stage?”, in RAIL, number 1025, page 19:

(British spelling) The unfair favouring of one person or group at the expense of another.


9/11 attacks
Federal Communications Commission
National Emergency Number Association
United States

Chosen by the United States in the 1960s in place of the older British 999 number as a better way to avoid accidental calls from push-button telephones. It is officially pronounced "nine-one-one," not "nine-eleven," since "nine-eleven" refers to the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. 9/11 is universally distinguished from 911 and usually refers to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Officially written as 9-1-1 in regulations and materials from the United States National Emergency Number Association and Federal Communications Commission, which is also advocated by some media style guides.

When you call 911 in the United States, a local dispatcher usually answers the phone with "911" or "911. What's your emergency?"

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

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

Well, look, I wear a mask, I try not to be a maskhole about it. If I see — if I see somebody who doesn't have a mask, I don't call 911.

2021 March 18, John Kennedy, quotee, “SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA) IS INTERVIEWED ON FOX NEWS”, in Political Transcript Wire, Lanham:

The telephone number for emergency services in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Liberia, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Anguilla, Palau, and Tonga.

000(Mongolia) 105(China, Iran) 110(New Zealand) 111(European Union) 112(Japan, South Korea) 119(UK, Ireland) 999


smurf

Peyo
The Smurfs
fr:Les Schtroumpfs
nl:De Smurfen

Borrowed from Dutch smurf (via the Belgian comic De Smurfen, a translation of French Les Schtroumpfs), from French schtroumpf, a word that was created by Peyo based on German Strumpf (literally “stocking, sock”), either simply because it sounds funny to the French ear or based on a regional German use for “idiot”. Armand van Raalte was an employee for the Belgian publisher of Peyo's stories who felt that schtroumpf would not have the same effect in Dutch, so he tried to find a simple word that could be used both as a noun and a verb. The result was smurf. In other languages, the term was similarly altered; compare the translations below.

der

Each smurf goes to different banks and purchases cashier's checks in denominations of less than $ 10,000, thus bypassing the reporting requirement.

1998, Michael D. Lyman, Gary W. Potter, Drugs in Society: Causes, Concepts, and Control, page 202:

Once the checks and money orders were purchased, the smurfs delivered them to Barrera, who arranged deposits of multiple checks and money orders into bank accounts that he controlled for further transfer to accounts in Panama, Colombia, and elsewhere.

2001, Robert E. Grosse, Drugs and Money: Laundering Latin America's Cocaine Dollars, page 73:

The local cooks would get some smurfs to buy boxes of Sudafed at all the drugstores in a hundred-mile radius, then pay them off in product.

2020, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Winter Counts, page 22:

(law enforcement, drugs, slang) One member of a team, each of whom acquires a small amount of money or ingredients for manufacturing drugs, keeping the transactions too small in order to not raise suspicion.


smurf

en-verb

smurf (third-person singular simple present smurfs, present participle smurfing, simple past and past participle smurfed)

smurfs (present singular third-person)
smurfing (participle present)
smurfed (participle past)
smurfed (past)

(law enforcement, banking) To split a large financial transaction into smaller ones so as to avoid scrutiny; to carry out structuring.


imprison

imprison (third-person singular simple present imprisons, present participle imprisoning, simple past and past participle imprisoned)

imprisons (present singular third-person)
imprisoning (participle present)
imprisoned (participle past)
imprisoned (past)

From Middle English imprisonen, emprisounen, emprisonen, from Old French emprisonner.

One of the village's most notable sons was Thomas Grantham, a Baptist church leader born in 1634, who was persecuted and imprisoned in the struggle for nonconformist beliefs during the reign of Charles II.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 214, about Halton Holegate:

None of these people has ever had what they really wanted, and if they get a glimmer of it, they back off suspiciously, failures of imagination helping to imprison them further.

1985 December 21, Mara Math, “Fen (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 23, page 15:

[...] demand for the boots fell sharply after the Battle of Waterloo, and Brunel was imprisoned for debt in 1821.

2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 87:

(transitive) To put in or as if in prison; confine somebody against their will.


CP

en-noun

CP (countable and uncountable, plural CPs)

(law enforcement) Initialism of containment perimeter.


porridge

porridge (usually uncountable, plural porridges)

Variant of pottage (“thick soup or stew”), influenced by porray (“stew of leeks”). The "prison sentence" sense comes from the British tradition of serving prisoners porridge for breakfast.

keep one's breath to cool one's porridge

save one's breath to cool one's porridge

Just do your porridge and keep your head down.

(British, slang, uncountable) A prison sentence.

pap

breakfast cereal dish — see also oatmeal


manslaughter

manslaughter (countable and uncountable, plural manslaughters)

From Middle English manslaȝter, manslauter, equivalent to man + slaughter, or taken as an adaptation of Old English mansliht (“murder; killing of a person”), from mann (“person”) + sliht (“killing”), see manslaught. Cognate with Scots manslauchter (“homicide”). Compare also Old Frisian monslaga (“murder”).

inh

For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.

1930, Marmaduke Pickthall, transl., The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, surah 5, verse 32:

(obsolete) The slaying of a human being.


forger

-ɔː(ɹ)dʒə(ɹ)

From Middle English forger, forgere, from Old French forgiere; equivalent to forge + -er.

A person who creates forgeries, falsifies documents with intent to defraud, e.g. to create a false will or illicit copies of currency; counterfeiter.

կեղծարար

person who creates forgeries, falsifies documents with intent to defraud; counterfeiter


bratva

Borrowed from Russian братва (bratva, “brothers; brotherhood”).

cartel

Latin American organized crime syndicate

triad

Southeast Asian organized crime syndicate

(countable) A Russian organized crime syndicate/family.

(as "the bratva") Russian organized crime collectively.


Nigerian scam

The scam messages usually claim to originate from Nigeria, though this is often a spoof.

Even savvy Internet users have fallen victim to the ubiquitous Nigerian scam.

(Internet) An attempt to defraud by sending out large numbers of emails, each stating that the recipient is entitled to receive a large amount of money, but will need to supply banking account details, or to send payment for fees, before the payment can be passed on.


gallows

en-noun

gallows (plural gallows or (rare) gallowses)

gallows (plural)
gallowses (plural rare)

From Middle English galwes, galewes, plural of galwe, galowe, from Old English galga, gealga, from Proto-West Germanic *galgō, from Proto-Germanic *galgô, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰalgʰ-, *ǵʰalg- (“long switch, rod, shaft, pole, perch”). The plural construction probably refers to the vertical and horizontal beams.
Compare West Frisian galge, Dutch galg, German Galgen, Danish galge, Icelandic gálgi.
For the pronunciation /ˈɡæləs/, compare bellows, bodice.

Near-synonym: gibbet

No, Sir, 'tis fear of Hanging. Who would not ſteal, or do Murder, every time his Fingers itch'd at it, were it not for fear of the Gallows?

1728, Thomas Otway, “The Atheist, or, the Second Part of the Solider's Fortune”, in The Works of Mr. Thomas Otway, volume 2, London, page 37:

Wooden framework on which persons are put to death by hanging.

مِشْنَقَة

wooden framework on which persons are put to death by hanging

galgbacke

site with one or more gallows for executions

Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. / You'll ne'er be friends with him: a' kill'd your sister.

1590, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost:

(colloquial, obsolete) A wretch who deserves to be hanged.


SBS

Special Boat Service
w:Special Boat Service

(UK, military) Initialism of Special Boat Service, an elite unit of the British Royal Marines, similar to the SAS but operating in a naval environment.


assassin

en-verb

assassin (third-person singular simple present assassins, present participle assassining, simple past and past participle assassined)

assassins (present singular third-person)
assassining (participle present)
assassined (participle past)
assassined (past)

Assassin (disambiguation)
Nicolas Bourbaki

From either French assassin or Italian assassino, from Arabic أَسَاسِيِّين (ʔasāsiyyīn, “people who are faithful to the foundation [of the faith]”) and the folkloric etymology Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users; low-lives”).
The mathematical sense was introduced by Bourbaki, playing on the notation operatorname Ass(M) and the fact that an associated prime is the annihilator of an element, and so is said to kill that element.

der

أَسَاسِيِّين

people who are faithful to the foundation 􂀿of the faith􂁀


crony

Cambridge University
Samuel Pepys
The New York Times
William Safire

Coined between 1655 and 1665 from Ancient Greek χρόνιος (khrónios, “perennial, long-lasting”); see also chrono- (“time”). Initially Cambridge University slang, in sense of “chum”, as “friend of long standing”, with illegal connotation later.
Early spellings included chrony, as in 1665 diary by Samuel Pepys, supporting the Greek origin.

Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time; and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great favour.

1819 June 23, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Rip Van Winkle”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number I, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 91:

(informal, originally Cambridge University) A close friend.

(informal) A trusted companion or partner in a criminal organization.


crony

Marry not an old crony.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:


SWAT

en-noun

SWAT (countable and uncountable, plural SWATs)

(chiefly US, law enforcement) Acronym of special weapons and tactics. The area of expertise of police officers trained and equipped to neutralize armed or entrenched criminals.

special weapons and tactics

"This situation is out of control. We need a SWAT," the policeman said.

(chiefly US, law enforcement) A SWAT team


mob

From Middle English mob, short for mobile, from Latin mōbile (vulgus) (“fickle (crowd)”). The video-gaming sense originates from English mobile, used by Richard Bartle for objects capable of movement in an early MUD.

der

The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 01:

What if it is a mob killing? They can’t hurt me, but …

1986, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Under the Desert Stars, Dark Horse Books:

See also: Mob, Mafia (proper noun senses for specific ones)

A mafia: a group that engages in organized crime.


warden

→ Welsh: warden, gwarden

From Middle English wardein, from Anglo-Norman wardein, from warder (“to guard”), variant of Old French guarder (“to guard”) (whence modern French garder, also English guard), from Proto-Germanic *ward-; related to Old High German wartēn (“to watch”). Compare guardian, French gardien, from Old French guardian, guardein. Compare also ward and reward. Doublet of guardian.

An official charged with supervisory duties or with the enforcement of specific laws or regulations; such as a game warden or air-raid warden.

nəzarətçi

an official charged with supervisory duties


warder

1595, Samuel Daniel, Civil Wars, in The Poetical Works of Mr. Samuel Daniel, Volume II, London: R. Gosling, 1718, Book I, stanza 62, p. 25,
When, lo! the king chang’d suddenly his Mind,
Casts down his Warder to arrest them there;

Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down.

1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene 3]:

If thou doſt not inſtantly comply with theſe juſt demands, he defies thee to ſingle combat to the laſt extremity. And ſo ſaying, the Herald caſt down his warder.

1764 December 24 (indicated as 1765), Onuphrio Muralto, translated by William Marshal [pseudonyms; Horace Walpole], chapter III, in The Castle of Otranto, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Lownds […], →OCLC, page 91:

(archaic) A truncheon or staff carried by a king or commander, used to signal commands.


sheriff

From Middle English shirreve, from Old English sċīrġerēfa, corresponding to shire + reeve. There is no etymological connection to Sharif (شَرِيف (šarīf)), an Arabic title of honour that has cognates in other languages including Hindi, Urdu, Portuguese, etc.

(US) A government official, usually responsible for law enforcement in their county and for administration of the county jail, sometimes an officer of the court, usually elected.


warrant officer

en-noun

warrant officer (plural warrant officers)

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

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

(law enforcement) An officer assigned to execute warrants and other writs.


pullover

→ Bulgarian: пуловер (pulover)

→ Catalan: pul·lòver

→ Danish: pullover

→ Esperanto: pulovero

→ French: pull-over

→ Gulf Arabic: بلوڤر (blōvar)

→ German: Pullover

→ Hungarian: pulóver

→ Greek: πουλόβερ (poulóver)

→ Italian: pullover

→ Japanese: プルオーバー (puruōbā)

→ Georgian: პულოვერი (ṗuloveri)

→ Korean: 풀오버 (purobeo)

→ Polish: pulower

→ Portuguese: pulôver

→ Russian: пуло́вер (pulóver)

→ Sicilian: pullover

→ Spanish: pulóver

→ Swedish: pullover

I followed my training in the academy regarding vehicle pullovers.

2010, D. E. Gray, The Warrior in Me, page 23:

(chiefly law enforcement) An instance of a vehicle being pulled over.


killing

en-adj

killing (comparative more killing, superlative most killing)

more killing (comparative)
most killing (superlative)

From Middle English kyllyng; equivalent to kill + -ing.

That literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal.


gerrymander

en-verb

gerrymander (third-person singular simple present gerrymanders, present participle gerrymandering, simple past and past participle gerrymandered)

Elkanah Tisdale
Nathan Hale (journalist)
gerrymandering

gerrymanders (present singular third-person)
gerrymandering (participle present)
gerrymandered (participle past)
gerrymandered (past)

/ˈdʒɛɹiˌmændə/

/ˈd͡ʒɛɹiˌmændɚ/

Blend of Gerry + salamander (named after Elbridge Gerry), from the similarity in shape to a salamander of an electoral district created when Gerry was the governor of Massachusetts. Coined by editors of the Boston Gazette 26 March 1812, in text likely written by Nathan Hale and Benjamin and John Russell, and accompanying a cartoon by Elkanah Tisdale.

coin

Westminster City Council has been accused by the District Auditor of using public money to gerrymander marginal wards for the 1990 Borough elections. The strategy of attempting to 'gentrify' eight key wards, selling off council homes and hostels for the homeless to move out potential Labour voters and attract in more Conservative voters, was in conflict with the council's statutory duty to homeless people

2000, Hugo de Burgh, Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 207:

Fermanagh Council even went so far as to create the new village of Donagh in an attempt to move Catholics out of Newtownbutler, four miles away, so unionists could gerrymander a majority.

2022 December 1, Trevor Birney, Quinn, Merrion Press, →ISBN:

(transitive, derogatory, by extension, chiefly UK and Ireland) To deliberately bring in voters of one's own party or displace voters of another party from a voting district in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one party in an election.


gerrymander

/ˈdʒɛɹiˌmændə/

/ˈd͡ʒɛɹiˌmændɚ/

Elkanah Tisdale
Nathan Hale (journalist)

Any citizen looking at a map of district 12 could immediately tell that it was a gerrymander because of the ridiculous way it cut across 4 counties while carving up neighborhoods in half.

(derogatory) A voting district skewed by gerrymandering.

manipulált választókerület (határú)

a voting district skewed by gerrymandering


gangbang

(US, slang) An act of a street gang committing crimes as a group, such as attacking random people on the streets.


IR

en-noun

IR (countable and uncountable, plural IRs)

(law enforcement) Initialism of incident report.


backup

→ Danish: backup

→ Italian: backup

→ Japanese: バックアップ (bakkuappu)

→ Korean: 백업 (baegeop)

→ Portuguese: backup, becape

→ Swedish: backup

He's got a gun! You'd better send for backup.

Shaman: My patience is tested, but Uvenk invokes correctly. Grunt, who is your krantt? Your allies willing to kill and die on your behalf?
Shepard: How is a candidate tested if he brings backup on his Rite of Passage?
Shaman: Not every krogan can be the strongest warrior, but each must inspire his peers to battle at his side.
Shaman: If the ones who know you best can find nothing worthy in you, you should wander the wastes and die alone before you weaken my clan.

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tuchanka:


impunity

impunity (countable and uncountable, plural impunities)

From Middle French impunité, from Latin impunitas, from impunis (“without punishment”).

(countable, law) Exemption from punishment.


contraband

contraband (usually uncountable, plural contrabands)

From Spanish contrabanda (modern spelling contrabando), from Italian contrabando (modern spelling contrabbando), from contra (“against”) + bando (“ban”), and reinforced by French contrebande.

(uncountable) Any goods which are illicit or illegal to possess.

While some Yanks treated contrabands with a degree of equity or benevolence, the more typical response was indifference, contempt, or cruelty.

1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 497:

(countable, US, historical) A black slave during the American Civil War who had escaped to, or been captured by, Union forces.


contraband

en-verb

contraband (third-person singular simple present contrabands, present participle contrabanding, simple past and past participle contrabanded)

contrabands (present singular third-person)
contrabanding (participle present)
contrabanded (participle past)
contrabanded (past)

there are also searched for concealed Slaves, and goods contrabanded

1615, George Sandys, “The Second Booke”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett, →OCLC, page 87:

(obsolete) To import illegally; to smuggle.


wetting

Earned my name name for all of them wettings
If I let you live, then give blessings

2018 August 25, (1011) Eleven X (Splash) Russ X Taze, here Taze (lyrics and music), “Anti”, 3:01–3:05:

(US, MLE, slang) An act of murdering or seriously injuring someone.


fraudulent

en-adj

fraudulent (comparative more fraudulent, superlative most fraudulent)

more fraudulent (comparative)
most fraudulent (superlative)

From Middle English fraudulent, from Old French fraudulent, from Latin fraudulentus, from fraus (“fraud”).

He tried to pass a fraudulent check.


hoosegow

From informal spoken Spanish juzgao, variant of standard Spanish juzgado (“court, courthouse”). Alteration of pronunciation and spelling by law of Hobson-Jobson.

There's parts of Mexico they'd take you straight to the hoosegow for just whistlin that.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 424:

Philip Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology department, divided the participants at random into ‘prisoners’ and ‘guards,’ and even got the Palo Alto police to arrest the prisoners and haul them to the campus hoosegow.

2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 674:


cruiser

(US, law enforcement) A police patrol vehicle.


behind bars

There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside.

1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XXVII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:

Some 460,000 Americans are behind bars for drug offenses.

2001 May 7, Margot Roosevelt et al., “The War Against The War On Drugs”, in Time:

Leading Jordanian exponents of the Salafi-jihadi world view, such as Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, are now behind bars or silent, fearing arrest by the powerful mukhabarat secret police.

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

(figuratively, idiomatic) In jail, in prison.


sheepdog

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


racket

From Middle English raket, of uncertain origin.
Possibly cognate with Middle French rachette, requette (“palm of the hand”). From Arabic رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد (rāḥat al-yad, “palm of the hand”).
Alternatively, the term might be derived from Dutch raketsen instead, from Middle French rachasser (“to strike (the ball) back”).

unc

uncertain origin

der

رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد

“In the doctor's team, many such topics have come up in their WhatsApp group, some screenshots of this have also reached us like drugs, racket, sex racket. The names of a TMC MP and his nephew are coming up again and again, I don't know what happened but something is wrong,”

2024, Digital Desk, RG Kar Hospital A Centre of Porn-Sex-Drug Racket? Kolkata Doctor's Rape-Murder Case Turns Murkier:

Effacing the truth. A generally small group of people in the know putting on a false persona or narrative to deceive many. Originaged in 1935 from Gen. Smedley Butler's book War Is a Racket.


workhouse

Among other public buildings in a certain town which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, it boasts of one which is common to most towns, great or small, to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born, […] the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.

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

"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." / "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve.[…]"

1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:

(British, historical) An institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work.


vested interest

en-noun

vested interest (plural vested interests)

Popularized in sociology by Thorstein Veblen, The Vested Interests and the Common Man (1919).

Today, under compulsion of patriotic devotion, fear, shame and bitter need, and under the unprecedentedly shrewd surveillance of public officers bent on maximum production, the great essential industries controlled by the vested interests may, one with another, be considered to approach—perhaps even conceivably to exceed—a fifty-percent efficiency; […]

1920 [1919], Thorstein Veblen, The Vested Interests and the Common Man, New York: B. W. Huebsch, page 78:

But it was not a question of evidence, of guilt or innocence. Tom Mooney was bitterly hated by the vested interests of San Francisco. He had to be gotten out of the way.

1929, Alexander Berkman, chapter 8, in Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism, New York: Vanguard Press, →OCLC:

On this point there was no difference between mercantilists and feudalists, between crowned planners and vested interests, between centralizing bureaucrats and conservative particularists.

1957 [1944], Karl Polanyi, chapter 6, in The Great Transformation, Beacon Press: Boston, page 70:

It should now be obvious to everyone that vested interests only change when they are forced to do so.

2019, Danny Burns, Cordula Reimann, “Movement Building”, in Extinction Rebellion, editor, This Is Not A Drill, London: Penguin, →ISBN:

She listed “Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP, the militant unions, the vested interests, the talking heads, the Brexit deniers, Extinction Rebellion and some of the people we had in the hall earlier” as those who she thought were working against the interests of growth.

2022 October 5, Rowena Mason, quoting Liz Truss, “Liz Truss promises ‘growth, growth and growth’ in protest-hit speech”, in The Guardian:

(in the plural) A group of people or organizations with such a stake, especially those that seek to control an existing system or activity from which they derive benefit.

ذینفع

a group of people or organizations with such a stake


purloin

en-verb

purloin (third-person singular simple present purloins, present participle purloining, simple past and past participle purloined)

purloins (present singular third-person)
purloining (participle present)
purloined (participle past)
purloined (past)

From Middle English purloynen (“to remove”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman purloigner (“to put far away”), one of the variants of Old French porloignier. Doublet of prolong.

der

Had from his wakeful custody purloined / The guarded gold.

1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

Probably my acquaintance, Mr Blank, therefore, would have been able, if he had so wished to do, to purloin the papers which he mentioned.

1900, One Who Was in It, chapter 8, in Kruger's Secret Service, pages 168–169:

The refreshment room was full of chatter and babble, which attracted everybody's envious glances. Some one had left his set in the middle of the dance, purloined a sandwich from the buffet, and was now chewing away proudly as he swerved and stamped, to the amusement of the rest.

1916, chapter 4, in A. Cecil Curtis, transl., Royal Highness, translation of Königliche Hoheit by Thomas Mann:

Or was this simply another item Mr. Stink had purloined during his career as a gentleman thief?

2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(transitive, usually formal or humorous) To take the property of another, often in breach of trust; to appropriate wrongfully; to steal.


bump

en-verb

bump (third-person singular simple present bumps, present participle bumping, simple past and past participle bumped)

bumps (present singular third-person)
bumping (participle present)
bumped (participle past)
bumped (past)
Lighter (canonical)
1917-1919: An Historical Glossary” (canonical)
volume 47 (canonical)
number 1 (canonical)
page 24 (canonical)

From Early Modern English bump (“a shock, blow from a collision”), probably of North Germanic origin; compare Danish bump (“a thump”), Danish bumpe (“to thump”), Old Danish bumpe (“to strike with a clenched fist”), all probably of imitative origin.
Apparently related to Middle English bumben, bummen (“to make a hollow noise”), Dutch bommen (“to hum, buzz”), German Low German bumsen (“to bump, push”), German bummen (“to hum, buzz”), Icelandic bumba (“drum”). More at bum, bumble. Compare also bomb.

onom

imitative

cog

(criminal slang and US military slang, circa 1920–1950) To encounter and stop, to catch.


zero tolerance

I get weary of this zero tolerance bullshit. It's annoying. To begin with, it's a fascist concept; it's what Hitler and Stalin practiced. It allows for no exceptions or compassion of any kind. All is black and white—no gradations. But even more important, it doesn't solve anything. The use of such a slogan simply allows whichever company, school or municipality is using it to claim they're doing something about a problem when, in fact, nothing is being done at all and the problem is being ignored. It's a cosmetic non-solution designed to impress simpletons. Whenever you hear the phrase zero tolerance, remember, someone is bullshitting you.

2004, George Carlin, “ZERO TOLERANCE”, in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 84:

The strict policy of enforcing law(s) or the rule(s), and allowing no toleration or compromise even for first-time offenders or petty violations.

零容忍

strict policy of enforcing all the laws or rules


recess

en-noun

recess (countable and uncountable, plural recesses)

The noun is borrowed from Latin recessus (“act of going back, departure, receding, retiring; (figuratively) retreat, withdrawal; (metonymically) distant, secluded, or secret spot, corner, nook, retreat; recessed part, indentation”) (also Late Latin recessus (“decree or resolution of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire”)), from recēdō (“to go back, recede, retire, withdraw; to go away, depart; (by extension) to disappear, vanish; to separate; to stand back, be distant; to yield”) (from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + cēdō (“to go, move, proceed”)) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs); influenced by Middle French recès, French recès (“a break, pause; break between classes in school; school vacation; ebbing of tide; reduction”) (also Anglo-Norman recès and Old French recès (“hiding place; hollow”).
Sense 5 (“decree or resolution of the diet of the Holy Roman Empire, etc.”) is possibly influenced by Italian recesso and refers to a decree or resolution made just before a meeting ends.
The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.
Cognates
* Catalan recés
* Italian recesso
* Middle French recès (modern French recès)
* Portuguese recesso
* Spanish receso

syvyys

hidden, innermost, or inaccessible place or part of a place

فُسْحة

temporary stoppage of an activity — see also break, pause

(countable) A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.

(criminal slang, usually in the plural) The place in a prison where the communal lavatories are located.

vessa

(slang) place in a prison where the communal lavatories are located


donkey bid

A fake bid at an auction, used by the auctioneer to raise the price and thus raise the commission.


filch

Georges de la Tour
Metropolitan Museum of Art

From Middle English filchen (“to pilfer, steal”). The further origin of the word is uncertain, but it is likely from or related to Old English fylċian (“to marshal troops”) and Old English ġefylċe (“band of men, army, host”), which would make it also related to folk.

der

By the appropriation clause, which is here referred to, it was proposed to apply a part of the property of the Irish Church to secular purposes, that is, to work a transfer of property, with an alteration of its uses. Call this as you will, a spoliation, or wise application, it implies a loss to one and a gain to other, of the same property. In the evil sense, it means spoliation, or wrongful deprival, appropriation, or "conveyance" in the sense of a filch.

1860, Lawrence Peel, “To John B[acon] S[awrey] Morritt, Esq., Portland Place, London [letter from Sir Walter Scott]”, in A Sketch of the Life and Character of Sir Robert Peel, London: Longman, Green, Longma, and Roberts, →OCLC, page 173:


WPC

woman police constable
woman police constable#English

(UK, law enforcement, historical) Initialism of woman police constable, a former police rank.


DPC

PW4 (DPC 13900) was at the checkline junction Luard Road near Jaffe Road. They were there to prevent protesters rushing in to block the road from Luard Road.

Paragraph 67, HKSAR v Tong Ying Kit/Reasons for Verdict ([2021] HKCFI 2200)

(Hong Kong, law enforcement) Initialism of detective police constable.

(India, law enforcement) Initialism of District Police Chief. A police officer in charge of a police district in the Kerala State Police.


brigand

From Middle English brigaunt, bregaund circa 1400, from Old French brigand (“foot soldier”) attested from 1421, from Italian briga (“trouble, bother”), perhaps ultimately of Proto-Germanic or Celtic origin.


slaughter

en-noun

slaughter (countable and uncountable, plural slaughters)

From Middle English slaughter, from Old Norse *slahtr, later sláttr, from Proto-Germanic *slahtrą, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną. Equivalent to slay + -ter (as in laughter). Eventually derived from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”). Related with Dutch slachten, German schlachten, Finnish lahdata (all “to slaughter”).

der

1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VI, 1773, The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost, Edinburgh, page 416,
For ſin, on war and mutual ſlaughter bent.

[…] I ſee
Th’ Inſulting Tyrant prancing o’er the Field
Strow’d with Rome’s Citizens, and drench’d in Slaughter,
His Horſe’s Hoofs wet with Patrician Blood.

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:

A massacre; the killing of a large number of people.


borstal

Inherited from Middle English *borstile, *borghstile, from Old English beorh (“a hill”) + stigel (“a stile”).
The institutions are named after Borstal Prison in Borstal, Rochester, Kent, England.

(UK) A way up a hill in the South Downs.

(historical) Any of the prisons set up in Britain for delinquent boys from 1895 to 1983.

You have juvenile courts. Do you have borstal institutions for juveniles?

2004, August 3, Speaker of the Kenyan National Assembly, Kenya National Assembly Official Record, Hansard, page 3126

Seven years ago, I was sent to borstal. Slithering around in the societal sludge, I was forced to admit I'd made a huge mistake – committing robbery.

2011 November 7, Paris Lees, “My Transsexual Summer: a new view of gender”, in The Guardian:

(British, Ireland) Any institution which provides education to young offenders.


kickback

en-noun

kickback (countable and uncountable, plural kickbacks)

Central to his [Yury Skuratov's] investigation were kickbacks supposedly paid by a Swiss construction company for contracts to restore government buildings, including both houses of parliament.

2018, Oliver Bullough, chapter 4, in Moneyland, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 65:

You sell cars and help arrange car insurance for buyers. Insurance brokers pay back part of their commissions to you for referring customers to them. You must include the kickbacks in your income.

2021 February 11, “Publication 17 (2020), Your Federal Income Tax”, in irs.gov, Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2021-08-24, Kickbacks:

(countable, informal) A covert, often illegal, payment in return for a favor consisting of providing an opportunity of chargeable transaction; especially, a kind of quid pro quo in which if you (an insider) secretly help me (an outsider) win the bid for the contract then I will secretly send you a portion of the contract value; thus, a kind of bribe.

für eine Gefälligkeit heimlich ausgezahlter Geldbetrag


witness tampering

From witness + tampering. First use appears c. 1902 in the Indianapolis Sun.

(law, criminology) The act of attempting to improperly alter, influence or prevent the testimony of witnesses within civil or criminal proceedings.


underworld

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

That part of society that is engaged in crime or vice, and particularly those involved in organized crime.

onderwêreld

part of society engaged in crime or vice


all-nighter

From all-night + -er = all- + night + -er.

(UK, crime, slang) A session with a prostitute covering the entire night.

(UK, crime, slang) A client of a prostitute who has paid for the entire night.

(US, crime, slang) A criminal or other person kept in jail over night.


sixty-one

(US, New York, informal) A police officer's report detailing a crime reported by a civilian.


culprit

From Anglo-Norman cul. prit, contraction of culpable: prest (d'averrer nostre bille) 'guilty: ready (to prove our case)', words used by prosecutor in opening a trial, mistaken in English for an address to the defendant. See culpable. It may have been influenced by Latin culpa (“blame, fault”).

(UK, law) A prisoner accused but not yet tried.


amber alert

After Amber Hagerman (1986–1996), a girl who was abducted and killed in Arlington, Texas. The upper-case spelling indicates a backronym: America's Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response.

(US, Canada) A public notification of a child abduction.


receiver

From Anglo-Norman receverre, receivour et al., later also reformed as receive + -er. Compare recevor, rescaivour.

curator

person appointed to settle financial affairs

прыёмнік

electronic device that receives and converts signal

(now historical) An official whose job is to receive taxes or other monies; a tax collector, a treasurer.


desperado

desperado (plural desperadoes or desperados)

desperadoes (plural)
desperados (plural)

/dɛspəˈɹɑːdəʊ/

From obsolete Spanish desperado, past participle of desperar, archaic form of desesperar (“to despair”), from Latin disperare (“to despair, to lose hope”), from prefix dis- + sperare (“to hope”). Doublet of desperate.

der

The kind of persons who excite or give signal to such revolutions — students, young men of letters […], or fierce and justly bankrupt desperadoes, acting everywhere on the discontent of the millions and blowing it into flame, — might give rise to reflections as to the character of our epoch.

1850, Thomas Carlyle, “The present time”, in Latter-Day Pamphlets:

Surely this was the face of a desperado.

1918, Willa Cather, My Antonia, paperback edition, Mirado Modern Classics, page 6:

A bold outlaw, especially one from southern portions of the Wild West.


treason

en-noun

treason (countable and uncountable, plural treasons)

From Middle English tresoun, treison, from Anglo-Norman treson, from Old French traïson (“treason”), from trair, or from Latin trāditiō (“a giving up, handing over, surrender, delivery, tradition”), from trādō (“give up, hand over, deliver over, betray”, verb), from trāns- (“over, across”) + dō (“give”). Doublet of tradition.

der

Treaſon doth never [pro]ſper: what's the reaſon? / For yf yt [pro]ſper none dare call yt treaſon

c. 1605, John Harington, “42: Of Treason”, in Epigrams (British Library Additional MS. 12049), Book III, folio 75, verso; republished at London: British Library Digitised Manuscripts, 2020 September 17:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unleſs on the Testimony of two Witneſses to the same overt Act, or on Confeſsion in open Court.

1787 September 17, Alexander Hamilton et al., “Article III, Section 3”, in Constitution of the United States, Philadelphia: Jacob Shallus:

If for every error and every act of incompetence one can substitute an act of treason, many points of fascinating interpretation are open to the paranoid imagination: treason in high places can be found at almost every turning.

1964 November, Richard J. Hofstadter, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics”, in Robert Shnayerson, editor, Harper's Magazine, New York City: Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company:

The crime of betraying one’s own country.


CID

(British, law enforcement, initialism) Scotland Yard Criminal Investigation Department

(US, military, law enforcement, initialism) U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command

(US, military, law enforcement, initialism) Former name of NCIS. (Naval Criminal Investigation Division)


peeler

From the surname of Sir Robert Peel, who established the Irish constabulary and London's police force; compare bobby, from the given name.

A peeler man who heard the din came in to see the show;
He tried to run the bushman in, but he refused to go.
And when at last the barber spoke, and said "'Twas all in fun—
'Twas just a little harmless joke, a trifle overdone."

1892, Banjo Paterson, The Man from Ironbark:

I’d covered pretty nearly two miles before I came across a peeler, — and when I did the man was cracked — and he thought me mad, or drunk, or both. By the time I’d got myself within nodding distance of being run in for obstructing the police in the execution of their duty, […] Holt was out of sight.

I was standin' there and the car came down the street with the two peelers comin' after them and I'm standin' here with [my son] in my arms.

2004, Alice McIntyre, Women in Belfast: How Violence Shapes Identity, →ISBN, page 57:

How do you fight back to get your right back to walk free down the street when your name and address singles you out for every Peeler on the beat?

2004, “Don’t Hand Me Over”, in The Box Set 1964-2004(2004) No.2, performed by Christy Moore:

Special Irish Branch was looking for Fenians in South Kensington; going from there to a Catholic church for Easter Mass was very nearly the stupidest thing Eliza could do, short of walking into Scotland Yard and cursing the peelers out in Irish.

2011, Marie Brennan, With Fate Conspire, →ISBN:

It was Jem and Georgie that was in mortal danger, true, but there was not one of us that wanted the peelers asking us questions.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A police officer.


set up

en-verb

set up (third-person singular simple present sets up, present participle setting up, simple past and past participle set up)

sets up (present singular third-person)
setting up (participle present)
set up (participle past)
set up (past)

They claimed that they weren't selling drugs, but that they'd been set up by the police.

(informal, transitive, criminology) To trick or lure (someone) in order to entrap them.


slop

From Middle English slop, sloppe, slope, from Old English *slop (found in oferslop (“an outergarment, surplice”)). Cognate with Icelandic sloppur (“a long, loose gown”).

cog

(obsolete) A loose outer garment; a jacket or overall.

(South Africa, chiefly in the plural) A flip-flop.


slop

en-noun

slop (countable and uncountable, plural slops)

Probably from Middle English *sloppe (attested in plural form sloppes), representing Old English *sloppe (attested in cūsloppe), related to slip.

2023 September 21, Kyle Barr, “YouTube Announces New Tools to Flood Its Platform With AI-Generated Slop”, in Gizmodo, retrieved 2024-05-08

His post describes a sense of unease, paranoia and loneliness, expressing deep disappointment at the state of the modern internet. He suggests that AI has successfully drowned out the majority of online human activity, reshaping the internet into a more controlled, algorithmic form that exists only to sell products and ideas.

2024 January 16, Dani Di Placido, “The Dead Internet Theory, Explained”, in Forbes.com, retrieved 2024-05-08:

Almost all of the AI-generated slop online is peddled for clicks on social media, not published by major news outlets. These publications still get tripped up, of course, but it's rare.

2024 April 4, Kim Komando, “Don't be fooled by deepfake videos and photos this election cycle. Here's how to spot AI”, in USA Today, retrieved 2024-05-08:

Watching in real time as "slop" becomes a term of art. the way that "spam" became the term for unwanted emails, "slop" is going in the dictionary as the term for unwanted AI generated content

“Society needs concise ways to talk about modern A.I. — both the positives and the negatives,” he said. “‘Ignore that email, it’s spam,’ and ‘Ignore that article, it’s slop,’ are both useful lessons.”

2024 June 11, Benjamin Hoffman, quoting Simon Willison, “First Came ‘Spam.’ Now, With A.I., We’ve Got ‘Slop’”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-06-11:

In many ways, political slop is a logical end point for these image generators, which seem most useful for people trying to make a quick buck.

2024 August 21, Charlie Warzel, “The MAGA Aesthetic Is AI Slop”, in The Atlantic:

“Coca-Cola just put out an ad and ruined Christmas,” Dylan Pearce, one of the campaign’s many critics, said on TikTok, adding, “To put out slop like this just ruins the Christmas spirit.”

2024 November 20, Alex Vadukul, “Coca-Cola’s Holiday Ads Trade the ‘Real Thing’ for Generative A.I.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

generative artificial intelligence
generative artificial intelligence

(artificial intelligence, derogatory) Junk output from generative artificial intelligence published on the Internet in large quantities, posing as human-made content.


slop

en-verb

slop (third-person singular simple present slops, present participle slopping, simple past and past participle slopped)

slops (present singular third-person)
slopping (participle present)
slopped (participle past)
slopped (past)

We slopped through paddies in 100-degree-plus heat and slept with one eye open at night.

1980, The Leatherneck, volume 63, page 13:

(intransitive) To make one's way through soggy terrain.


house arrest

en-noun

house arrest (countable and uncountable, plural house arrests)

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

Convicted in Federal District Court in Brooklyn of insurance fraud, a 35-year-old legal secretary could have received up to 50 years in prison and a $56,000 fine. The judge sentenced her instead to house arrest for two years.

1986 July 20, Richard Haitch, “Follow-up on the News: House Arrest Instead of Prison”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-27:

(law) Confinement of a person to his or her residence, sometimes with a limited travel allowance, ordered by a judge or other authority as a more lenient alternative to imprisonment.

إقامة جبرية

confinement of a person, by authorities, to his or her residence


shooting

shooting (countable and uncountable, plural shootings)

From Middle English shoting, schoting, from Old English scotung (“shooting”), from Proto-Germanic *skutungō, equivalent to shoot + -ing. Cognate with Dutch schieting, German Erschießung (“shooting”), Swedish skjutning (“shooting”).

Well, I've always been progun, you know that. It's... yeah, I think adding more guns into a situation is obviously the way to prevent shooting. I think in a way, if we take the guns away, the shootings may escalate. And I think that's why he's so firm on literally arming everyone. I think if you don't have a gun in your hands... well, let's not find out what that world would be.

2018 February 23, Richard Ayoade, The Last Leg, Season 14, Episode 5

Police are hunting the people who carried out the shootings last week.

(countable) an instance of shooting with a gun or other weapon

a district in which people have the right to kill game with firearms


war crime

/ˈwɔɹ ˌkɹaɪm/

[W]ar crimes are such hostile or other acts of soldiers or other individuals as may be punished by the enemy on capture of the offenders. […] [A]lthough among the acts called war crimes are many which, such as abuse of a flag of truce or assassination of enemy soldiers for instance, are crimes in the moral sense of the term, there are others which, such as taking part in a levy en masse on territory occupied by the enemy for instance, may be highly praiseworthy patriotic acts. Because every belligerent can and actually must in the interest of his own safety punish these acts, they are termed war crimes, whatever may be the motive, the purpose, and the moral character of the respective act.

1906, L[assa Francis Lawrence] Oppenheim, “Means of Securing Legitimate Warfare”, in International Law: A Treatise, volumes II (War and Neutrality), London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, part II (War), section IV (Punishment of War Crimes), § 251, pages 263–264:

[Paragraph] 441. The term "War Crime" is the technical expression for such an act of enemy soldiers and enemy civilians as may be visited by punishment or capture of the offenders. […] [Paragraph] 442. War crimes may be divided into four different classes:– (i) Violations of the recognized rules of warfare by members of the armed forces. (ii) Illegitimate hostilities in arms committed by individuals who are not members of the armed forces. (iii) Espionage and war treason. (iv) Marauding.

1914, J[ames] E[dward] Edmonds, L[assa Francis Lawrence] Oppenheim, “The Laws and Usages of War on Land”, in Hugh Godley, editor, Manual of Military Law, 6th edition, London: War Office; His Majesty’s Stationery Office, published 1917, →OCLC, page 302:

If, this time, there is going to be, after the victory of the United Nations, due punishment of these abominable war crimes, perpetrated in breach of the laws of war by enemy nations and for which enemy individuals must be held responsible, it would be a grave mistake to concern ourselves at this stage merely with the discussion of the most appropriate tribunals to deal with such charges, or with the minutiae of juridical analysis.

1942 October 7, John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, “[Collective Notes Presented to the Governments of Great Britain, the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. and Relative Correspondence] Statement of the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords”, in Punishment for War Crimes, New York, N.Y.: United Nations Information Office, published [1943], →OCLC, page 30:

To be sure, there is a strong argument that aiding and abetting a recognized international-law war crime such as terrorism is itself an international-law war crime. And there are other similar war crimes.

2012 October 16, Brett Kavanaugh, Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, “Hamdan v. United States [No. 11-1257]”, in West’s Federal Reporter: Cases Argued and Determined in the United States Courts of Appeals (3d Series), volume 696, St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, paragraph 66, page 1251:

To deal with war crime such as rape a mobile court system was created in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo].

2015, Mariam M. Kurtz, Mwamini Thambwe Diggs, “Wartime Rape: A Case Study of the Democratic Republic of Congo”, in Mariam M. Kurtz, Lester R. Kurtz, editors, Women, War, and Violence: Topography, Resistance, and Hope, volume 1, Santa Barbara, Calif., Denver, Colo.: Praeger Security International, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 193:

The two primary ones are that by the time anyone bothered to codify rules of war, lighthouses went on the list of "do not attack" pretty much immediately, and so it would be a rather pointless war crime to commit; the second reason is related to why they went on the list of "do not attack" targets very quickly, and that is that lighthouses are completely nondiscriminatory as to who they alert to what's going on in terms of danger and coastlines and hidden rocks and such[…]

2020 June 21, “Drachinifel” [pseudonym], “The Drydock” (6:33 from the start), in YouTube, episode 099, archived from the original on 2022-08-08:

Condoleezza Rice pops up on Fox to be told by the anchor: "When you invade a sovereign nation, that is a war crime." With a solemn nod, the former secretary of state to George Bush replies: "It is certainly against every principle of international law and international order."

2022 March 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Western values? They enthroned the monster who is shelling Ukrainians today”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-14:

(criminal law, international law) A punishable offence under international law for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian.

criminal law; international law; criminal law; international law


mugging

There have been three muggings in this street in the past week.

A quick violent robbery of a person, usually in a public place.

väkivaltainen ryöstö

a quick violent robbery of a person, usually in a public place


airship

From air + ship.
* (jocular British sense): is in imitation of worship "form of address for magistrates et al., possibly also an oblique reference to Colonel Blimp.

(US, law enforcement, aviation) A police air unit, a police helicopter.


embezzlement

embezzlement (countable and uncountable, plural embezzlements)

(law, business) The fraudulent conversion of property from a property owner.

اِخْتِلَاس

the fraudulent conversion of property from a property owner


identity theft

identity theft (countable and uncountable, plural identity thefts)

(law, criminology) The deliberate assumption of another person's identity, usually to gain access to that person's finances or to frame a person for a crime.


PSNI

Byrne was already facing pressure after a major data breach from the PSNI last month. Personal data of all serving members of the PSNI was mistakenly published in response to a freedom of information request.

2023 September 4, Matthew Weaver, Lisa O'Carroll, “Northern Ireland police chief quits after series of controversies”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Police Service of Northern Ireland
w:Police Service of Northern Ireland

(law enforcement, Northern Ireland) Initialism of Police Service of Northern Ireland, created in 2001 as a successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).


cooler

About a year or so back we had him in the cooler on a Mann Act rap.


duffer

Cognate with duff, which see (origin is uncertain).

(archaic) Anything substandard, such as a counterfeit or a defective instance.

Judy was an associate (‘stud’) of a Whitefella cattle duffer named Brigalow Bill (aka WJJ Ward).

2004, Deborah Bird Rose, Reports from a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation, page 112:

2005 February 2, “Alleged sheep duffer charged”, in The Northern Daily Leader:

In the mid-1860s a duffer named James Harnell, who went by the nickname Narran Jim, had taken stock he′d stolen from the district around Culgoa and Narran rivers across Queensland to the Cooper.[…]An alert Bulloo Downs stockman contacted the police, and when Police Inspector Fitzgerald and eight Aboriginal troopers tracked Narran Jim and surrounded him while he was sleeping, the cattle duffer woke to find himself looking down the barrel of Fitzgerald′s revolver and seven years in jail.

The cattle duffer′s escape would have been impeded by those young ones. Calves can be unruly unless you move them carefully in the company of their mothers.

2011, Clancy Tucker, Gunnedah Hero, unnumbered page:

His book-sized Electronic Shepherd prototype is sensitive enough to hear a sheep bleating, a dog barking, a whistle or human command, or even the vehicle or mustering dogs of a potential sheep duffer.

2015 March 11, Terry Sim, “Greg’s Electronic Shepherd will hear dogs and sheep duffers coming 24/7”, in Sheep Central:

(Australia, dated) A cattle thief or thief of other livestock; one who alters the brands of cattle.


blotter

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

(law enforcement) A daily register of arrests and other events in a police station.

журна́л

регистра́ции приво́дов в полице́йском уча́стке


terrorism

terrorism (usually uncountable, plural terrorisms)

/ˈtɛɹəɹɪzəm/

From French terrorisme, from terreur + -isme, equivalent to terror + -ism.
The word first appears in English in 1795 in reference to the Jacobin radicals of France, who ruled during the Reign of Terror.

In England I was proscribed for having vindicated the French Revolution, and I have suffered a rigorous imprisonment in France for having pursued a similar mode of conduct. During the reign of terrorism, I was a close prisoner for eight long months, and remained so above three months after the era of the tenth Thermidor.

1795 July 7, Thomas Paine, The Constitution Of 1795 (Speech in the French National Convention):

(historical) The system of fear and intimidation put into place during the Reign of Terror in Revolutionary France around 1793-94.

തീവ്രവാദം (tīvravādaṁ, literally “extremism”)

The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty. David Cameron insists that his latest communications data bill is "vital to counter terrorism". Yet terror is mayhem. It is no threat to freedom. That threat is from counter-terror, from ministers capitulating to securocrats.

2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23:

The use of unlawful violence against people or property to achieve political objectives.

(by extension) The use of intimidation or bullying tactics.


mitch

en-verb

mitch (third-person singular simple present mitches, present participle mitching, simple past and past participle mitched)

mitches (present singular third-person)
mitching (participle present)
mitched (participle past)
mitched (past)

From Middle English mychen, müchen (“to rob, steal, pilfer”), from Old English *myċċan (“to steal”), from Proto-West Germanic *mukkjan, from Proto-Germanic *mukjaną (“to waylay, ambush, hide, rob”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mūg-, *(s)mewg- (“swindler, thief”). Cognate with Scots mich, myche (“to steal”), Saterland Frisian mogeln (“to act secretively and deceitfully”), Dutch mokkelen (“to flatter”), Alemannic German mauchen (“to nibble secretively”), German mogeln (“to cheat”), German meucheln (“to assassinate”), Norwegian i mugg (“in secret, secretly”), Latin muger (“cheater”). Related to mooch.

cog

(transitive, dialectal) To pilfer; filch; steal.


collector

From Middle English collectour, from Anglo-Norman collectour, from Late Latin collector, from Latin colligō (“to gather together”).

инкасатор

person who is employed to collect payments

Whereupon he soon after appointed A. W. his collector in Austins; which office he kept till he was admitted Mr. of arts

(historical) One holding a Bachelor of Arts in Oxford, formerly appointed to superintend some scholastic proceedings in Lent.


mugu

They sent emails asking mugus to wire funds in order to claim nonexistent prizes.

2010, Sefi Atta, News from Home: Stories, page 245:

(South Africa) Alternative spelling of moegoe

It is people like you who make my hustlers in Europe call Americans mugu.

2020, Mirka Honkanen, World Englishes on the Web: The Nigerian Diaspora in the USA, page 240:

(Nigeria, Internet slang, derogatory) A victim of an online scam.


safecracking

The act of defeating the security mechanisms of a safe or vault to gain access to its contents.


bombing

en-noun

bombing (countable and uncountable, plural bombings)

The action of dropping bombs from the air.


graverobber

/ˈɡɹeɪvˌɹɒbə/

/ˈɡɹeɪvˌɹɑbɚ/

One who robs graves or tombs in order to sell the contents for profit.


robbery

robbery (countable and uncountable, plural robberies)

From Middle English robberie, robry, roberie, from Old French roberie, from the verb rober (“to steal; to pillage”) + -ie. Ultimately from unattested Frankish *raubōn. By surface analysis, rob + -ery. Compare Dutch roverij (“robbery”), Norwegian Bokmål røveri (“robbery”), German Räuberei (“robbery, banditry”).
Displaced native Old English rēaflāc.

bank robbery

(crime) The offense of taking or attempting to take the property of another by force or threat of force.

røveriforsøg

attempt of taking the property of another by threat


larceny

larceny (countable and uncountable, plural larcenies)

Coined in Middle English (as larceni) between 1425 and 1475 from Anglo-Norman larcin (“theft”), from Latin latrocinium (“robbery”), from latro (“robber, mercenary”), from Ancient Greek λάτρον (látron, “pay, hire”).

der

“Why are you walking around,” inquired Oedipa, “with your eyes closed, Metzger?” “Larceny,” Metzger said, “maybe they'll need a lawyer.”

1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 3, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 37:

He was prudent enough not to admit he was earning money, which went down well with you, for you knew already he was working “black,” as the Germans call it — meaning illegally, and at night. Shrewd chap, you thought; resourceful; not above a bit of larceny.

(law, uncountable) The unlawful taking of personal property as an attempt to deprive the legal owner of it permanently.

кражба

law: unlawful taking of personal property


patrol

en-noun

patrol (countable and uncountable, plural patrols)

From French patrouille, from Old French patrouille, patouille (“a night-watch”, literally “a tramping about”), from patrouiller, patouiller, patoiller (“to paddle or pudder in water, dabble with the feet, begrime, besmear”), from patte, pate (“paw, foot of an animal”), from Vulgar Latin *patta (“paw, foot”), from Frankish *patta (“paw, sole of the foot”), from Proto-Germanic *paþjaną, *paþōną (“to walk, tread, go, step, pace”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pent-, *(s)pat- (“path; to walk”), a variant of Proto-Indo-European *pent-, *pat- (“path; to go”); see find. Cognate with Dutch pad, patte (“paw”), Low German pedden (“to step, tread”), German patschen (“to splash, smack, dabble, waddle”), German Patsche (“a swatter, beater, paw, puddle, mire”). Related to pad, path.

cog

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-patrol.wav

(law enforcement) The largest division of officers within a police department or sheriff's office, whose assignment is to patrol and respond to calls for service.


swindler

But I got somethin’ to say bearin’ on that swindler who got what was comin’ to him.

1908, The Scrap Book: Second Section, volume V, page 637:

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 swindles, cheats or defrauds.


swindle

en-verb

swindle (third-person singular simple present swindles, present participle swindling, simple past and past participle swindled)

swindles (present singular third-person)
swindling (participle present)
swindled (participle past)
swindled (past)

Back-formation from swindler, from German Schwindler, from German schwindeln, from Middle High German swindeln, swindelen, from Old High German swintiln, frequentative of the verb swintan, from Proto-West Germanic *swindan (“to diminish”).
See also Modern German schwindeln, Danish svindel and svindle, Dutch zwindelen and zwendelen, Yiddish שווינדל (shvindl), Low German swinneln, Middle English swinden (“to languish, waste away”).

cog

The two men swindled the company out of $160,000.

Such Nations cannot have a King to command them; can only have this or the other scandalous swindling Copper Captain, constitutional Gilt Mountebank, or other the like unsalutary entity by way of King; and the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children in a frightful and tragical manner, little noticed in the Penny Newspapers and Periodical Literatures of this generation.

1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XXI. (of XXI.):

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

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


defraud

en-verb

defraud (third-person singular simple present defrauds, present participle defrauding, simple past and past participle defrauded)

defrauds (present singular third-person)
defrauding (participle present)
defrauded (participle past)
defrauded (past)

From Middle English defrauden, from Old French defrauder, from de- + frauder.

I had never defrauded a man of a farthing, nor called him knave behind his back. But now the last rag that covered my nakedness had been torn from me. I was branded a blackleg, card-sharper, and murderer.

1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter II, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

(transitive) To obtain money or property from (a person) by fraud; to swindle.


fraudster

2016 Eric Andrew-Gee Why and how Ontarians change their names in the 21st century The Globe and Mail
With a few exceptions, all those changes were published in the Ontario Gazette, a little-read compendium of government business that comes out every week. The province requires this by law, as do most Canadian jurisdictions, nominally to thwart fraudsters and deadbeats.

CPS MerseyCheshire welcomes the jailing of Helen Dove who conned her friend into giving up her job for a dream post that never existed. Kimberley McDonnell lost around £50,000 because of the fraudster.

2020 January 29, “Woman jailed for conning her friend into giving up her job for a dream post that never existed”, in CPS Mersey-Cheshire, London: Crown Prosecution Service, retrieved 2020-01-30:

Northern has made it harder for fraudsters to cheat checks on barcode season tickets. The operator has made it impossible for people to screenshot tickets from within the Northern app and then share the tickets for others to use.

2023 February 22, “Network News: Northern thwarts barcode cheats”, in RAIL, number 977, page 25:

a person who practices fraud; a swindler.

pathological liar

not to be confused; differing neuropsychological mechanisms


penitentiary

pĕn'·ĭ·tĕnʹ·shə·rē

/ˌpɛnɪˈtɛnʃəɹi/

From Middle English penitentiary, from Medieval Latin pēnitentiārius (“place of penitence”), from Latin paenitentia (“penitence”), term used by the Quakers in Pennsylvania during the 1790s, describing a place for penitents to dwell upon their sins.

der

A priest in the Roman Catholic Church who administers the sacrament of penance.

rippipappi

priest who administers the sacrament of penance


Alcatraz

From Spanish Isla de los Alcatraces (“island of gannets”), named by Juan Manuel de Ayala, an explorer of San Francisco Bay.

bor

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
w:Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

Ellipsis of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a famous former U.S. federal prison, on the island.


Holocaust

en-proper noun

the Holocaust (usually uncountable, plural Holocausts)

the Holocaust (canonical)
Holocausts (plural)

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

(historical, strictly) The systematic mass murder (genocide) of six million Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II.

Sjoa

the mass murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany

Holocaust

the mass murder of 11–14 million people by Nazi Germany


Met

The Metropolitan Police has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over its handling of the investigation. […] The Met said it had informed its own Directorate of Professional Standards and a "mandatory referral will be made to the IOPC in relation to the initial contact from the woman's friend".

2024 April 11, Victoria Cook, “Westminster murder inquiry: Woman, 27, named by police”, in bbc.com:

(London, law enforcement) The Metropolitan Police Service of London (MPS).


W

Abbreviations of various words beginning with W.

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of warrant.


Zeta

A member of Los Zetas, a Mexican criminal syndicate.


chop shop

Apparently his stolen car had been taken to a chop shop, as the police only recovered the frame.

Once the car is in a chop shop, a skilled cutter can reduce it to salable parts in half an hour to 45 minutes.

1979, “The Car-Theft Boom”, in Newsweek, page 100:

New York City sports a number of chop shops, as do Chicago, Detroit and most other large metropolitan areas.[…]If they can′t find the right engine, the junkyard may call a chop shop contact to get someone on the street looking for the right make and year.

1987 August, Ed Heney, “Outsmart the Car Thieves”, in Kiplinger's Personal Finance, page 32:

“A chop shop disassembles the entire car, so they need a location that is secluded, like a warehouse or a vacant factory — although today′s forfeiture laws tend to discourage chop shops.”

2009, Taylor Joseph, Allison Investigates, Four Star Publishing, page 94:

(US) A facility where stolen motor vehicles are disassembled in order to sell their mechanical parts.


cold case

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

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

(law enforcement, slang) A criminal investigation that has not been solved after a considerable time but remains on the books and may be reopened when new evidence appears.


UCO

en-noun

UCO (countable and uncountable, plural UCOs)

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of undercover officer.


drive-by

A crime, such as a shooting, carried out from a moving vehicle.


matron

From Middle English matrone, from Old French matrone, from Latin mātrōna (“married woman”), from māter (“mother”). Doublet of matrona.


piracy

piracy (countable and uncountable, plural piracies)

From Medieval Latin pīrātia, from Classical Latin pīrāta + ia, or Ancient Greek πειρατεία (peirateía).

How should the international community respond to Somali piracy?

(crime, nautical) Robbery at sea, a violation of international law; taking a ship away from the control of those who are legally entitled to it.


chain gang

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

(cycling) A group of cyclists riding in a close-knit formation akin to a road race, normally for the purposes of training.

ryhmäajo

a group of cyclists riding in a close-knit formation


recidivism

recidivism (countable and uncountable, plural recidivisms)

/ɹəˈsɪdəvəzm̩/

From French récidivisme, from Latin recidīvus (“returning, recurring”). Compare recidivous, -ism.

uder

alcohol(ic) recidivism

(by extension) Returning to a negative behavior after having stopped it for a period of time.


Mafioso

Borrowed from Italian mafioso, from Sicilian mafiusu.

Coordinate term: (rare) Mafiosa

The widow of one murdered Mafioso gave her son the bloody jacket that her husband had been killed in. […] So far there has not been a Mafiosa who has made it to the top on her own.

1998, World Press Review, volume 45, page 43, columns 1–2:

Phil put his arms around him. Drew him in close, pressed his cheek to Dane's the way the Mafiosi in the fifties would kiss somebody right before they punched his ticket.

2006, Tom Piccirilli, Headstone City, Random House, →ISBN, retrieved 2021-12-08, page 189:

“Sometimes, I swear you have no idea about the concept of money. Only you could give a one-of-a-kind ring to a female Mafioso, so casually.”

2010, Jess Phillips, Roxy’s Sequel, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 176:

Ninetta had grown up in a Mafia village, her family was Mafia, and she had fallen in love with a Mafioso. And she was a Mafiosa herself.

2015, Attilio Bolzoni, Giuseppe D’Avanzo, translated by Shaun Whiteside, The Boss of Bosses: The Life of the Infamous Totò Riina, Dreaded Head of the Sicilian Mafia, London: Orion Books, →ISBN:

“As the library grows in popularity, the community gets stronger and she gets more powerful. She ultimately goes from this timorous lady to a local kingpin. Kind of like a female Mafioso. And then someone crosses her so she has a vengeance to play out.”

2019, Michelle Frances, The Temp, New York, N.Y.: Kensington Books, →ISBN, page 301:

Plotted from the beginning fitting a plan for a Mafioso dictator / Never deviating from the decision to be the first for a throwaway bride / Whims and whimsical thinking guides the denial of the Mafiosa.

2019, Rosemarie M. Neilson, “The Throwaway Bride”, in Terrible Trauma Like a Poem, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

An (especially male) member of the Mafia.


PO

(law enforcement) Initialism of police officer.

probation officer
probation officer#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of probation officer.


modus operandi

en-noun

modus operandi (plural modi operandi or modus operandis)

modi operandi (plural)
modus operandis (plural)

Borrowed from Latin modus operandī, from modus (“manner, method”) and operandī (“of working”).

(law enforcement) A known criminal's established habits and mode of work when committing specific offences, especially fraud, matched with characteristics of an unsolved crime to narrow down (limit to a specific list) or profile suspects.


omertà

omertà (countable and uncountable, plural omertàs)

/ˌəʊmɛːˈtɑː/

From Italian omertà – even though a further etymology is disputed – italianization of Sicilian umirtà (“the quality of being humble, quiet, soft”). Some see it as a southern dialectal variant of umiltà (“humility”), from Latin humilitās, from humilis (“humble”), from humus (“ground, soil”), in which case it is a doublet of humility. Other sources (as the OED) interpret it as a Sicilian calque (loan translation) of Spanish hombredad (“manliness”), altered to fit Sicilian omu (“man”); in this latter case though “ummirità” should be the natural phonological output.

der

Patriarca pleaded guilty in December 1991 to racketeering and conspiracy charges, but he refused to admit he was a member of the Mafia, clinging to his vow of ‘omerta’ to the secret organization.

There was a time that high-profile killings such as the 1968 assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. brought passionate cries for limitations on handguns. A bipartisan omerta now smothers the issue.

The FDA was not pleased that the omertà had been broken.

2016 October, “How the FDA Manipulates the Media”, in Scientific American:

Despite criticising what he called an “omertà” in British politics about Brexit, he expressed some sympathy for the Labour leader Keir’s wariness about the issue.

2023 October 6, Heather Stewart, quoting Sadiq Khan, “‘Choose London’: Sadiq Khan steps up efforts to lure EU citizens post-Brexit”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Judith Godrèche, an actor who has accused two high-profile directors of raping her as a teenager, will address France’s most prestigious film awards ceremony on Friday in an unusual move aimed at breaking what she calls the “omertà” surrounding the abuse of women and girls in the industry.

2024 February 21, Kim Willsher, quoting Judith Godrèche, “Judith Godrèche to address French cinema’s ‘omertà’ around #MeToo”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(crime) A code of silence amongst members of a criminal organization (especially the Mafia) that forbids divulging insider secrets to law enforcement, often also followed outside of the organization in fear of retaliation; (by extension) any code of silence.

أُومِيرْتَا

code of silence amongst members of the Mafia or other criminal organization


Adam Tiler

"In the same way as I got this," showing a handful of silver, "by turning autem diver, or, if you like it better, my Adam tiler."
"I do not understand you, Billy!"
"Why, an autem diver is a pickpocket who practises in a church, and an Adam tiler his associate, who receives his booty …"

1823, Tales of my Father, and my Friends, printed for T. and G. Underwood, Fleet Street, and Macredie, Skelly, and Co., Edinburgh; page 90–91

He waved his hand. "Well, you know how these sods gas. Most likely there's nothing in it. It's a cert Gursey sank dead on the gutter at the Flat. It'd be hard to prove he was Jem's Adam Tiler."

1934, Brian Penton, Landtakers: The Story of an Epoch

"In Mr Yarde's picturesque but somewhat obscure language, he — er — tipped the cole to Adam Tiler. Have I that right?'
'How the d-devil should I know?' snapped Brandon.
'You must forgive me. You seem to me to be so familiar with — er — thieves and — er — swashbucklers, that I assumed that you were conversant also with thieving cant.'

1940 (2009 edition), Georgette Heyer, The Corinthian, page 112

“And do you know what an Adam Tiler does?” Wickham looked a bit embarrassed. “Is he employed in the repair of roofs, sir?”
...
“An Adam Tiler is the associate of a Fork, better known as a pickpocket.”

2007, S. Thomas Russell, Under Enemy Colors:

“Then Sue lifted his passkey as he turned to go back to the office.”
“Lifted?” I said. “So now you've got the lingo down? Next you'll be telling me about marks, nippers, and Adam Tilers.” The Adam Tiler bit brought a puzzled look from even Sue.
“Oh, oh, I was the misdirection,” Narlene blurted. “I sort of let my pareo slip off of my shoulder at just the right time.”

2007, Ronnie Blackwell, Spite, page 154:

(idiomatic, archaic, thieves' cant and slang) A pickpocket's accomplice; the person who takes the goods a pickpocket steals and leaves with them.


angle for farthings

en-verb

angle for farthings (third-person singular simple present angles for farthings, present participle angling for farthings, simple past and past participle angled for farthings)

angles for farthings (present singular third-person)
angling for farthings (participle present)
angled for farthings (participle past)
angled for farthings (past)

(obsolete, idiomatic) To beg out of a prison window with a cap, or box, let down at the end of a long string.