henchman

From Middle English henxman (“page, attendant”), from Old English *hengstmann, *hengestmann (“groom”, literally “horseman”), from hengst, hengest (“stallion, horse, steed, gelding”) (from Proto-Germanic *hangistaz (“stallion”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱanḱest-, *kankest- (“horse”)) + mann (“man”). Cognate with archaic German Hengstmann (“a groom”), Icelandic hestamaður (“horseman, groom”).

cog

A loyal and trusted follower or subordinate.

ذَنَب

a loyal and trusted follower or subordinate

The glib sophistries of the special pleader and the verdant gullibility of the public; the ridiculous, now happily fast disappearing partisan bias of the voter and the venal instincts of the political henchman; the lack of proper moral stamina in much of our public press, and the tardiness of practical public appreciation where journals are true to the people's interests the fear of the vengeance;

1906, W. G. Joerns, “The Railroad Hold-up”, in Watson's Magazine, volume 5, page 397:

It is madness to commence war against the audacious despots under any leader like Lafayette, the traitor and venal henchman of despotism, against whom the cries of the patriots murdered on July 17 call to Heaven.

1916, The History of Nations - Volume 10, page 165:

the great task confronting humankind today in effecting government that is worth its powder and shot is not regularity of attendance at the polls so much as in the intelligent analysis of the true leader from the henchman seeking selfish profit from the filling of an office.

1935, William Dudley Pelley, Nations-in-law: an Unconventional Analysis Cleaning the Barnacles from the Ship of State:

In appreciation for his service of railroading Frank, the power-brokering Watson sent his venal henchman Dorsey to the U.S. Congress for two terms .

1998, Jay Robert Nash, Terrorism in the 20th Century, page 78:

The practice of doubling in this production further emphasizes the ascendancy of corporeal decay and violence in the tetralogy, for, in addition to Cade, Oliver Cotton also appears as the seductive cuckold-maker Suffolk and, in the final of the three installments of The Plantagenets, as Richard of Gloucester's venal and Machiavellian henchman, the Duke of Buckingham .

2005, Christian Riegel, Response to Death: The Literary Work of Mourning, page 53:

A person who supports a political figure chiefly out of selfish interests.

aanhanger

a person who supports a political figure chiefly out of selfish interests

Most of the carpet joints were run by the mobsters and local henchmen associated with the Mayfield Road Gang, but Peter Schmidt's Playtorium and Glenn Rendezvous were also included.

2014, Paul A. Tenkotte, James C. Claypool, The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky, page 385:

(obsolete) A page to a prince or other person of high rank.


wrecker

(Soviet Union, crime, historical) Someone accused of the formal charge of wrecking; that is, of undermining the state in intangible ways.

Soviet Union; crime; Soviet Union; crime


lockup

He's in lockup for 30 days for drunk and disorderly.

(slang) A jail cell; a period of incarceration in such a cell; a facility containing such cells.


chickenhawk

/ˈt͡ʃɪkɪnˌhɔk/

From chicken + hawk. The political sense is derived from figurative meanings of "chicken" (coward) and "hawk" (militarist).

(US politics, derogatory) A draft dodger, especially in the Vietnam War, who nonetheless currently supports United States overseas military engagements.

knapenschenner

adult man who seeks out boys as his sexual partners


RAP

(US, law enforcement) Acronym of record of arrest and prosecution.


blue heeler

Shorty the Sixth, as he was sometimes called, had been a very winning puppy, and they had kept him at home until he began to exhibit the same tendencies that Duane's blue heelers always exhibited, that is, a tendency to herd children in the same way they would have herded cattle or sheep: they nipped their heels.

2003, Larry McMurtry, Duane's Depressed, page 75:

He always has his blue heeler dog in his office tucked away under his feet or near the door.

2007, Graham Greenwood, A Truckie's Dream: The Allan Scott Story : His Official Biography, page 113:

For some time, Dan and Pat had been at me to get a dog so we took a trip to the Yagoona RSPCA and came back with a blue heeler pup.

2008, Elizabeth Bruce, A Show Off, Just Like Your Father, page 92:

Australian Cattle Dog
Australian Cattle Dog

(Australia) A blue-coated variety of the Australian Cattle Dog breed.


date rape

However, from a more practical point of view it would be wise to adopt a distinction between "date rape" and "stranger rape" since jurors are likely to adopt such a distinction on their own.

1974, Noreen Connell, Cassandra Wilson, Rape: the first sourcebook for women, New American Library, page 155:

A rape committed by an acquaintance of the victim while out on a date.


bait and switch

Seereeram and other critics say it was a sort of bait and switch. Citibank met with Trintomar three times in the spring of 1992 to pitch its original $66 million refinancing proposal, and in a letter dated Sept. 9, Trintomar asked for a formal proposal. The next day, Citibank sent a letter outlining the extra $96.5 million loan in several pages of eye-glazing detail.

2002 October 7, Jyoti Thottam, “Predators in Paradise?”, in Time:

An unscrupulous and sometimes illegal sales technique, in which an inexpensive product is advertised to attract prospective customers who are then told by sales personnel that the inexpensive product is unavailable or of poor quality and are instead urged to buy a more expensive product.


Scotland Yard

From the address, originally at Great Scotland Yard off Whitehall, then at New Scotland Yard on the Embankment, and (currently) at New Scotland Yard in Westminster.

I, for my part, drew up as full a précis of the case as I deemed advisable, and as time permitted, which I despatched by one of the company’s police to Scotland Yard.

The headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department of the London Metropolitan Police Force.


cutpurse

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From Middle English cutte-purs; equivalent to cut + purse: originally, purses were worn by a strap at the girdle, which the thief would cut.

A cutpurse of the empire and the rule

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

The Gipsie snap & Pedro
are none of Toms Comradoes,
yͤ punck I skorne, & yͤ cutpurse sworn
& yͤ roring boyes brauadoes

c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

A thief who steals from others' purses or pockets in public.


blue flu

en-noun

blue flu (countable and uncountable, plural blue flus)

(informal) An industrial action taken by members of the police, claiming sickness en masse.


ghetto bird

Had to pull a strap on a fool named Louis the Third
Cuz I'm getting chased by the ghetto bird

1993, Ghetto Bird, Ice Cube, Lethal Injection

(slang, US, idiomatic) A police helicopter, specifically in the context of patrolling or searching impoverished, high-crime urban areas (the ghetto).


con artist

He's the FBI agent antagonist in Catch Me If You Can (2002) opposite a buoyantly charming young Leonardo DiCaprio as con artist Frank Abagnale, but his character is more of a determined cat to Leo's mouse than a real foil; he's simply a prim Eisenhower-era man with a job to do.

2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC:

Leavers will be attracted to that story because it spares them the discomfort of admitting that they voted for a con, and then made a prime minister of the con artist.

2021 February 23, Rafael Behr, “Brexit is a machine to generate perpetual grievance. It's doing its job perfectly”, in The Guardian:

A person who defrauds or swindles others after first gaining their trust; a scam operator.


incident report

incident report (plural incident reports)

(law enforcement) A commonly used description for law enforcement or help desk events.


rustler

(US, especially Western US, slang, dated) An alert, energetic, driving person.


barney

Etymology unknown. Often incorrectly thought to be Cockney rhyming slang from Barney Rubble (“trouble”, from the character Barney Rubble on The Flintstones), it actually dates back to the 19th century and its origin is unknown.

unk

Etymology unknown

There goes that fuckin' Barney right now, with his fuckin' "skiin' trip." We should'a kicked that dude's ass.

1997, Damon, Matt, Affleck, Ben, Good Will Hunting, spoken by Morgan O'Mally (Casey Affleck):

(US dialect, Boston) A student at Harvard University.


SSP

senior superintendent
senior superintendent#English

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of senior superintendent. (a police rank)


slaying

en-noun

slaying (countable and uncountable, plural slayings)

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The slaying of the civil rights activist brought a storm of protest.

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

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

Killing, especially the murder of a human.

घात

killing, especially the murder of a human


do time

en-verb

do time (third-person singular simple present does time, present participle doing time, simple past did time, past participle done time)

does time (present singular third-person)
doing time (participle present)
did time (past)
done time (participle past)

My wife is unavailable for three months, as she's doing time for fraud.

Yes, Virginia, now Santa's doing time
In a Federal prison for his infamous crime

1996, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “The Night Santa Went Crazy”, in Bad Hair Day:

(colloquial) To spend time in prison (as a prisoner) or in the military (as a servicemember).

if you can't do the time, don't do the crime


hot-wire

hot-wire (third-person singular simple present hot-wires, present participle hot-wiring, simple past and past participle hot-wired)

hot-wires (present singular third-person)
hot-wiring (participle present)
hot-wired (participle past)
hot-wired (past)

From hot + wire, with hot referring to electrical current.

(transitive, slang) To start an automobile engine by bypassing the ignition key wiring.


prone out

prone out (third-person singular simple present prones out, present participle proning out, simple past and past participle proned out)

prones out (present singular third-person)
proning out (participle present)
proned out (participle past)
proned out (past)

(transitive, law enforcement) To order or cause a person to lie prone on the ground, usually at gunpoint and to effect a high-risk arrest.


uttering

The girl using a fake ID to enter a bar was guilty of uttering.

If two jointly prepare counterfeit coin, and utter it in different shops apart from each other, but in concert, and intending to share the proceeds, the utterings of each are the joint utterings of both, and they may be convicted jointly.

1881, Ephraim Arnold Jacob, Robert Alexander Fisher., An Analytical Digest of the Law and Practice of the Courts of Common Law:

(law) The crime of knowingly presenting forged documentation.


speeding

We were overtaken on the inside by a speeding motorcyclist.

The NTSB said on Tuesday that the 2022 North Las Vegas crash highlights the need for intelligent speed assistance technology and countermeasures including interlock program for repeat speeding offenders. National Transportation Safety Board Calls For Speed-Limiting Tech in Cars, Road track, 15 Nov 2023

Specifically, travelling at an illegal speed (of vehicles, motorists).


victimology

en-noun

victimology (countable and uncountable, plural victimologies)

From French victimologie. victim + -ology.

The study of the victims of crime, and especially of the reasons some people are more prone to be victims.

受害者學 /受害者学

the study of the victims of crime, and especially of the reasons why some people are more prone to be victims


obs

But I now knew I was under obs by the Gardai as well as by GMP.

2017, Jimmy Donnelly, Jimmy The Weed: Inside the Quality Street Gang:

Had you under obs for three weeks.

2018, Paige Elizabeth Turner, Clock Face of Ills:

(law enforcement, slang) Police observation.


one-time

He was the one-time president of the club.

His one-time investment in a brickyard had put the idea into his head—an idea that he decided was a good one, for it enabled him to suggest that she ride along with him to inspect the quarry.

1910, Jack London, chapter XIII, in Burning Daylight:

Pollyanna never doubted now that John Pendleton was her Aunt Polly's one-time lover; […]

1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 18, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page, →OCLC:

The old Ramsgate Harbour station of the one-time South Eastern Railway was a case in point, as also the stations in the Isle of Wight that you name, such as Ventnor West.

1945 July and August, “The Why and The Wherefore: Station Turntables”, in Railway Magazine, page 241, reply to J. A. Drew:

Has the one-time wonder fuel become the new asbestos – not to say mustard gas?

2017 April 13, Adam Forrest, “The death of diesel: has the one-time wonder fuel become the new asbestos?”, in The Guardian:

Of or pertaining to a specific period of time in the past, not extending to the present.

някогашен

of or pertaining to a specific time in the past


Miranda

Ernesto Miranda
Miranda
Miranda v. Arizona

From the case Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), from the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian habitational surname Miranda of Ernesto Miranda.


gumball

When he drinks too much he's a gumball.

(US, slang) The flashing lights on top of a police car.

The spiky seedpod of the sweet gum tree.


shimmer

(crime) A thin electronic device that is fit inside a card reader, such as on automated teller machines (ATMs), or point-of-sale terminals (POS's), that acts as an intermediate interface between the chip on a chip-and-pin technology card and the chip reader of the machine, to allow one to clone the chip.


hot property

hot property (usually uncountable, plural hot properties)

From sense hot (“illegal, stolen”) – compare hot check (“fraudulent check”).


kleptocracy

WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.

2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18:

A corrupt and dishonest government or society characterised by greed.


pay-off

The prison break never could have succeeded if it hadn't been for multiple pay-offs to various corrupt officers.


internal affairs

(US, law enforcement) A division of a law enforcement agency investigating incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force.


crime of passion

crime of passion (plural crimes of passion)

There was this boy I sent to the gas chamber at Huntsville here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killed a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn't any passion to it. Told me that he'd been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he'd do it again.

2007, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men (motion picture), spoken by Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones):

(law, criminology) A crime, typically a violent crime such as assault or murder, committed against a loved one because of sudden jealous rage or heartbreak rather than as a premeditated act.

crim passional

crime against a loved one because of jealous rage or heartbreak


nightstick

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(US, law enforcement) A long, narrow, polelike club carried by police and security personnel, for use in self-defense.


police force

He joined the police force a long time ago, when he lived in Virginia.

(law enforcement) Any police organization; a constabulary.


attorney general

attorney general (plural attorneys general or attorney generals)

attorneys general (plural)
attorney generals (plural)

From Anglo-Norman/Law French, (modern French avocat général or procureur général), hence the unusual order of adjective following noun, instead of idiomatic English *general attorney. Compare court martial, notary public, secretary general, surgeon general.

Janet Reno was US Attorney General under Bill Clinton.

If you do wrongfully ſeize Herford's right, / call in his Letters Patents that he hath / By his Atturneyes generall, to ſue[…]

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 II, scene i], page 29, column 2:

A major government officer throughout the English-speaking world, generally responsible for interpreting the law for the head of government and executive department and functioning as chief prosecutor, with the ability to bring civil and criminal actions directly.


GBH

grievous bodily harm
grievous bodily harm#English

(British, law) Initialism of grievous bodily harm.


headsman

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From Middle English heddysman, equivalent to head + -s- + -man. Cognate with Scots hedisman, heidisman (“head man; chief; commander”). Compare also Danish høvedsmand (“captain”), Swedish hövitsman (“captain”), Icelandic höfuðsmaður (“captain”), German Hauptmann (“captain”).

(obsolete or Scotland) A chief person; a head man

And of those base-minded jesters or buffons, some have beene seene, that even at the point of death would never leave their jesting and scoffing. He whom the heads-man threw off from the Gallowes cried out, ‘Row the Gally,’ which was his ordinarie by-word.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

And made him Headsman, for we said, / "Who's next to be decapited / Cannot cut off another's head / Until he's cut his own off[…]"

1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC:

An executioner whose method of dispatching the condemned is decapitation.

(mining, historical) A labourer in a colliery who transports the coal from the workings to the horseway, and who is oftentimes assisted by a younger worker called a foal.

(nautical) One in command of a whaling vessel.


white-collar crime

white-collar crime (countable and uncountable, plural white-collar crimes)

Introduced by American sociologist Edwin Sutherland.

Fraud and embezzlement are examples of white-collar crime.

Non-violent crime, generally for personal gain and often involving money.


constabulary

From mediaeval Latin conestabularia, a noun use of the feminine version of conestabularius, from Latin constabulus, from comes stabuli, literally ‘master of the stables’.


dropper

Thus an American police chief discussing the 'cheque-droppers', then peculiar to his side of the Atlantic, who were taking a toll estimated at […] Over the years, forgery has tended to be an amateur operation — a crime of opportunity.

1969, Criminologist, number 11, page 123:

[…] 'dropper' — the person who presents the cheque at the bank or elsewhere — who takes the risk. […] On the other hand, 'kite droppers' usually work in teams.

1973, Arthur J. La Bern, Noël C. Browne, Haigh: the mind of a murderer, page 39:

(slang) A person who uses fraudulent cheques.


patrolman

On September 9, when a solitary Japanese patrolman tried to curtail the work of five Taiwanese who were cutting trees from a windbreak (in Anting settlement, Sinhua district), the accused responded "Taiwan is not Japan's land. Why are you stopping us?"

2006, Ping-hui Liao, David Der-wei Wang, Taiwan Under Japanese Colonial Rule, 1895–1945, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page https://books.google.com/books?id=pHlwcjwt7fEC&pg=PT391:

A police officer, especially a junior officer assigned patrol duty instead of detection or supervision.


twoc

en-verb

twoc (third-person singular simple present twocs, present participle twoccing or twocking, simple past and past participle twocced or twocked)

twocs (present singular third-person)
twoccing (participle present)
twocking (participle present)
twocced (participle past)
twocced (past)
twocked (participle past)
twocked (past)

From the legal term TWOC (“taken without owner's consent”).

Most familiarly, juveniles twoc cars. But, I suggest, readers twoc writings.

1994 Winter, John Hartley, “Twoccing and joyreading”, in Terence Hawkes, editor, Textual Practice, volume 8, number 3, page 2:

Joyriders are generally introduced to ‘twoccing’ by friends and it is seen as exciting, with many recounting the thrill, excitement and ‘buzz’ involved.

1998, Hazel Croall, Crime and Society in Britain, Longman, →ISBN, page 220:

James Harris also left a note saying "North Shields crew, if you don't keep it locked, it will get twocked" on the victim's TV

2015 June 22, Sara Nichol, “North Shields window cleaner poured bleach over victim's clothes when he burgled her house”, in Chronicle Live:

Security guard or not, Michael had jumped at the chance to steal, or in his parlance ‘twoc’, the bus.

2016, Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons & Rob Gibbons, Alan Partridge: Nomad, page 171:

A frustrated Kim, in a bright yellow waistcoat that looked like someone had made a hi-viz tabard out of Big Bird, twocked Vincent’s car and had a high octane 2mph crash with Dot Branning.

2016 October 18, Ian Hyland, “EastEnders has been a load of rubbish - but Kim's driving test could change that”, in Daily Mirror:

[The sentence was imposed in August by Judge Passfield, after he had pleaded guilty to taking a vehicle without consent.]

2023 November 28, Gareth Crickmer, “Sunderland man gets banned from drinking alcohol after twocking car, then gets caught out by ankle tag”, in Sunderland Echo:

(UK regional, slang) To steal (especially a car).


reform school

And through this one small error of judgment, Elwood’s life is changed when he is sent to a reform school called Nickel.

2019 July 26, Aminatta Forna, “The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead review”, in The Guardian:

(dated) A penal institution for juveniles, especially males.


reformatory

/ɹəˈfɔɹməˌtɔɹi/

/ɹɪˈfɔː(ɹ)mətəɹi/

/ɹɪˈfɔː(ɹ)mətɹi/

It was the nicest-looking property Elwood had ever seen—a real school, a good one, not the forbidding reformatory he’d conjured the last few weeks.

2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 45:

A prison, especially one for juveniles; a reform school.


organized crime

有組織犯罪 /有组织犯罪

crimes carried out by these organizations

Organized crime is largely responsible for the nation’s illicit drug trafficking.

A large criminal organization, or a group of such organizations, that deals in illegal goods and services.

Organized crime has dramatically increased in our neighbourhood.

The crimes perpetrated by those organizations.


borrowing

(slang, crime) Slang term for shoplifting.


kife

kife (third-person singular simple present kifes, present participle kifing, simple past and past participle kifed)

kifes (present singular third-person)
kifing (participle present)
kifed (participle past)
kifed (past)


gendarme

en-noun

gendarme (plural gendarmes or gensdarmes)

Borrowed from French gendarme, from plural gendarmes, a re-spelling of gens d’armes (“people of arms", "armed people”).

A member of the gendarmerie, a military body charged with police duties.

The US is tempted to play the role of global gendarme because everyone knows that the UN, as it is, lacks the resources and capacity to fill this role.

2003, Daniele Archibugi, Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, Debating Cosmopolitics, Verso, page 170:

The previous attempts foundered when they tried to take this gendarme directly.

1979, Chris Jones, Climbing in North America, →ISBN, page 118:

The Arete starts easily, with several beautiful, loping pitches leading to a striking gendarme.

1998, Climbing - Issues 178-180, page 64:

Continuing to the main summit involves ascents of the gendarmes (the first being the owl-eared one referred to in the next route description) and 140-foot rappels down their south sides.

2013, Joe Kelsey, Climbing and Hiking in the Wind River Mountains, →ISBN, page 259:


MPS

Metropolitan Police Service
w:Metropolitan Police

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of Metropolitan Police Service.


corrections officer

corrections officer (plural corrections officers)

Frank was proud of the fact that in all his years as a corrections officer, he had never been assaulted by an inmate.


rehabilitation

rehabilitation (countable and uncountable, plural rehabilitations)

/ˌɹiː.əˌbɪl.ɪˈteɪ.ʃən/

[ˌɹiː.əˌbɪl.ɪˈteɪ.ʃn̩]

From Middle French réhabilitation, from Medieval Latin rehabilitatio.

The working life span of a passenger carriage, on average, is between 30 and 35 years, so a steady replacement takes place quite naturally. The life span of a station, however, cannot be so easily reckoned, for it depends largely on the rehabilitation and upkeep of the existing structures.

1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, page 250:

Maybe now it should be clearer why Louis van Gaal has been telling anyone who cares to listen they should not be surprised if Manchester United’s rehabilitation takes longer than they would ideally like.

August 16 2014, Daniel Taylor, "Swansea upstage Manchester United in Louis van Gaal’s Premier League bow," guardian.co.uk

The process of rehabilitating somebody or something.


rehabilitate

en-verb

rehabilitate (third-person singular simple present rehabilitates, present participle rehabilitating, simple past and past participle rehabilitated)

rehabilitates (present singular third-person)
rehabilitating (participle present)
rehabilitated (participle past)
rehabilitated (past)

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin rehabilitātus, perfect passive participle of Latin rehabilitō.

lbor

(transitive, criminology) To restore to (a criminal etc.) the necessary training and education to allow for a successful reintegration into society; to retrain.


dragnet

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From drag + net, probably based on the model of Middle English draynet, dreynett (“dragnet”), Old English dræġnet, dræġnett (“dragnet”), equivalent to dray + net. Cognate with Swedish dragnät, Norwegian dragnett, from Icelandic dragnet.

The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives.[…]who, if anyone, is policing their use[?] Such concerns were sharpened further by the continuing revelations about how the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been using algorithms to help it interpret the colossal amounts of data it has collected from its covert dragnet of international telecommunications.

2013 July 26, Leo Hickman, “How algorithms rule the world”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 26:

(law enforcement) Heightened efforts by law enforcement personnel undertaken in order to capture suspects.

eftersøgning

Heightened efforts by law-enforcement personnel to capture suspects.


dragnet

en-verb

dragnet (third-person singular simple present dragnets, present participle dragnetting, simple past and past participle dragnetted)

dragnets (present singular third-person)
dragnetting (participle present)
dragnetted (participle past)
dragnetted (past)

In fact, Carty was not the man, but, after a police swoop had dragnetted twenty men suspected of having taken part in the business, he was lodged in Sligo jail and accused of this violence to the lady.

2010, Florence O'Donoghue, IRA Jailbreaks 1918-1921, →ISBN, page 164:

A May Day anti-capitalist protest last year in Seattle saw clashes between police and protesters, and the FBI had been dragnetting potential anarchists.

2013 September 19, Audrey Black, “Targeting Oppression”, in Eugene Weekly:

(law enforcement, transitive) To undertake heightened efforts to catch a suspect.


frosting

en-noun

frosting (countable and uncountable, plural frostings)

“[…] Cities aren’t like frosted cake — and, anyhow, even the cake didn’t keep very well. I tried it, and it dried up, ’specially the frosting. I reckon the time to take frosting and good times is while they are going; so I want to see all I can now while I’m here.”

1915, Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna Grows Up, The Page Company:

(US) Icing, a sweet, often creamy and thick, covering for cakes and other baked goods.


scalawag

Of obscure origin, perhaps from the name of the Shetland village of Scalloway (from Old Norse Skálavágr), known for its dwarf ponies and dwarf cattle.

(Philippines, law enforcement, military) rogue police; rogue military personnel


serve time

en-verb

serve time (third-person singular simple present serves time, present participle serving time, simple past and past participle served time)

serves time (present singular third-person)
serving time (participle present)
served time (participle past)
served time (past)

(idiomatic) To be confined in prison or a similar institution, typically for wrongdoing that violates the law.


birdlime

(rhyming slang) Time; a jail term, the serving of a prison sentence.


confidence trickster

en-noun

confidence trickster (plural confidence tricksters)

Someone who conducts a confidence game: who defrauds someone after winning his trust, a con man or con artist.


precinct

From Middle English precinct, precincte, early 15th century, in sense of “district for government purposes”, from Medieval Latin precinctum, alternative form of praecinctum (“enclosure, boundary line”), neuter singular of praecinctus, perfect passive participle of Latin praecingō (“surround, gird”), from prae (“before”) + cingō (“surround, encircle”), from which also cinch.
Cognate to Italian precingere (“to encircle”).

(US, law enforcement) A subdivision of a city under the jurisdiction of a specific group of police; the police station situated in that district.


police station

When the ballots were opened on 19 November, Hsu Hsin-liang’s supporters at a polling station in Chungli City suspected fraud. As the crowd swelled to approximately a thousand, rioting erupted. One protester was killed and the Chungli police station was burned.

1999, Shelley Rigger, “Political reform under Chiang Ching-kuo (1972-1988)”, in Politics in Taiwan: Voting for democracy, Routledge, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 115:

In trying to stop him from exploiting more children, I was ensuring my parents and my siblings would be ostracised. She begged me not to go to the police station.

2014 August 29, Ruzwana Bashir, “The untold story of how a culture of shame perpetuates abuse. I know, I was a victim”, in The Guardian:

(law enforcement) A building serving as the headquarters of a branch of the police force, and sometimes as a temporary place of confinement for offenders.


Stockholm syndrome

en-verb

Stockholm syndrome (third-person singular simple present Stockholm syndromes, present participle Stockholm syndroming, simple past and past participle Stockholm syndromed)

Stockholm syndromes (present singular third-person)
Stockholm syndroming (participle present)
Stockholm syndromed (participle past)
Stockholm syndromed (past)

Calque of Swedish Norrmalmstorgssyndromet. Named after the robbery of Kreditbanken at the Norrmalmstorg square in Stockholm, Sweden in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28, 1973. Originally, this term was directly translated from Swedish Norrmalmstorgssyndromet as the Norrmalmstorg syndrome, but later Norrmalmstorg was replaced with Stockholm, a word far more commonly known outside Sweden.

calque

The girls, it turns out, found the experience oddly positive, and not because they were brainwashed or Stockholm syndromed.

2015 July 17, Sarah Lyall, “Review: In ’Pretty Is,’ Grown Friends Recall Being Kidnapped”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-06-16:

Eventually, you Stockholm Syndromed yourself into believing that what happened to the Bills mattered to your life. Off the top of my head, I can still list more members of the 1990-93 Super Bowl-averse Bills than kids in my Grade 8 class.

2021 January 17, Cathal Kelly, “The curious case of all the Bills fans who are not from Buffalo”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, O.N.: The Woodbridge Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-14:

Britannia's is the best because they understand that a bunny is as much a feat of engineering as cooking. The quarter loaf of bread must, must be of the generic, mass-produced sort (not a farmhouse loaf, definitely not a milk bread, just standard unsliced white), with the light crust a dam wall holding in a reservoir of rich mutton curry that's Stockholm-syndroming massive potato halves, the sauce riveted with cloves and singing to the tune of ginger and curry leaves, the whole edible edifice capped with a dome built of the belly of the bread.

2022 March 6, “AA Gill Award winner 2022: introducing Sanjiv Mistry”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-22:

(transitive, informal) To cause someone to become affected by Stockholm syndrome.


money laundering

Shut up! Shut up! What is this charity!? You’re kids! You can’t fucking drive! What money laundering scheme are you operating!?

2016 September 25, Tim Carvell, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Jeff Maurer, Ben Silva, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Seena Vali, Julie Weiner, “Scandals”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 23, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:

The act of engaging in transactions designed to obscure the origin of money, especially money that has been obtained illegally.

geldwassery

act of obscuring the origin of money that has been obtained illegally


gangbuster

A law enforcement officer who specializes in disrupting organized crime.


bootlegger

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

intellectual property
intellectual property

One who breaks intellectual property laws by reproducing protected works without permission.

незако́нный торго́вец спиртны́ми напи́тками


banged up

My uncle has been banged up for ten years now; I haven't seen him in five.

(informal) Spending time in prison or jail.


stoning

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The stonings came as something of a surprise, in that Iranian officials had said they had suspended that method of execution.

2009 January 14, Nazila Fathi, “Iran Says U.S. Helped Finance Overthrow Plot”, in New York Times:

lapidation: punishment by throwing stones, usually resulting in death


narcotics

(law enforcement, law, politics) Pertaining to illicit drugs, especially psychoactive ones.


netherworld

From nether- (“beneath, lower”) + world.

The missionary was motivated by a sincere desire to rescue souls from eternal torment in the netherworld.

Specifically, a location of punishment in the afterlife; a hell.

Richard had been initiated into the netherworld of dog racing by his father, and knew all the popular greyhound performance-enhancing drugs.

Flicks is a large bar which has been in some conflict since it opened […] The nature of that conflict has been characterized as gay-straight, by the bar managers; as crazies-sane, by some residents; as predators-prey, by some bar patrons; and as "netherworld"-respectable, by some bureaucrats.

1975 December 20, Joe Beckmann, “The Vara Bars--What Solution”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 25, page 3:

(by extension) A hidden, shadowy, or sinister subculture, such as that of organized crime.

Hades

subterranean region for spirits of the dead


lockdown

en-noun

lockdown (countable and uncountable, plural lockdowns)

→ Dutch: lockdown

→ German: Lockdown

→ Italian: lockdown

→ Japanese: ロックダウン (rokkudaun)

→ Polish: lockdown

→ Romanian: lockdown

→ Russian: локда́ун (lokdáun)

At the time of writing, no decisions had been made by the Government as to when or how lockdown restrictions might begin to be lifted. However, discussions were taking place in the industry about how social distancing could be maintained on the railway if some patronage were to return soon.

2020 May 20, Andrew Haines talks to Stefanie Foster, “Repurpose rail for the 2020s”, in Rail, page 29:

Fans relished the traditional FA Cup fanfare from the Coldstream Guards and the hymn Abide With Me before throwing themselves wholeheartedly into an experience they have been largely deprived of since the first coronavirus lockdown began in March 2020.

2021 May 15, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 0-1 Leicester”, in BBC Sport:

When a column of smoke appeared on Thursday over the Sitong Bridge overpass in the Haidian district of Beijing, it drew attention to a protester who had hung banners openly bashing China’s top leader by name and criticizing the country’s “zero Covid” policy, including one calling for “freedom and not lockdowns.”

2022 October 14, Daisuke Wakabayashi, Claire Fu, “China’s Internet Censors Race to Quell Beijing Protest Chatter”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-14, Asia Pacific:

The confinement of people in their own rooms (e.g., in a school) or cells (in a prison), or to their own homes or areas (e.g., in the case of a city- or nation-wide issue) as a security measure after or amid a disturbance or as a non-pharmaceutical intervention in a pandemic.

staat van inperking

confinement of people as a security measure


Dirty Harry

After Dirty Harry, a fictional police detective who (in the film) tells his partner that he is called Dirty Harry because he gets all the dirty jobs.

(figuratively) A police officer who is reckless, disregards practices and policies, or who practices vigilantism or uses excessive force.


pay off

en-verb

pay off (third-person singular simple present pays off, present participle paying off, simple past and past participle paid off)

pays off (present singular third-person)
paying off (participle present)
paid off (participle past)
paid off (past)

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

splatit

to pay back (repay, pay off) the entirety of a loan, thereby effecting the release of a lien on

I thought the guards would give us trouble, but apparently he had paid them off.

I had to pay off the judge to get my license back.

1979, Al Greenwood, Lou Gramm, “Rev on the Red Line”, in Head Games:

(transitive, informal) To bribe, especially to deter oversight.


mobster

The proprietor was a "Zip" — a Sicilian-born mobster — who was running a gambling operation that cut into Godfather Gotti's turf.

1988, New York Magazine, volume 21, number 16, page 66:

Most of the carpet joints were run by the mobsters and local henchmen associated with the Mayfield Road Gang, but Peter Schmidt's Playtorium and Glenn Rendezvous were also included.

2014, Paul A. Tenkotte, James C. Claypool, The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky, page 385:

га́нгстер

member of a criminal gang — see also Mafioso


poacher

Regular supplier Barton played in another teasing corner, which was headed on towards goal by the impressive Ameobi and flicked in by expert poacher Nolan.

2011 January 16, Saj Chowdhury, “Sunderland 1 - 1 Newcastle”, in BBC:

(soccer) An attacker with good movement inside the penalty box, see Wikipedia:Goal poacher.


poaching

en-noun

poaching (countable and uncountable, plural poachings)

Illegal procurement of protected wildlife such as fish, game, logging, or plant collecting.


hate crime

I feel a hate crime coming on.

1997, Kevin Smith, Chasing Amy, spoken by Banky Edwards (Jason Lee):

The later twentieth century saw the fortuitous simultaneous rise of two synergistic political and psychological sciences. The first: the revolutionary precept of the hate crime.

2002 Sean Pertwee as Father, Equilibrium, 24 minutes

(crime) A crime motivated by hate for a race, gender, religion, etc., which may result in harsh punishments, the severity of which varies by statute and the nature of the crime.


racketeering

racketeering (usually uncountable, plural racketeerings)

Coined by the Employers' Association of Chicago in June 1927 in a statement about the influence of organized crime in the Teamsters union.

The criminal action of being involved in a racket; especially, directing it.


bracelets

Of thirty bare yeares haue I
twice twenty bin enraged,
& of forty bin three tymes fifteene
in durance soundlie caged,
On yͤ lordlie loftes of Bedlam
with stubble softe & dainty,
braue braceletts Strong, sweet whips ding dong
with wholesome hunger plenty

c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

"Sergeant," said Inspector Gilder, eyeing the black hands with wrath, "aren't you putting the bracelets on this fellow; he looks pretty dangerous."

1911, G. K. Chesterton, The Three Tools of Death:


child abuse

Coordinate term: elder abuse

(criminology) Physical, sexual or emotional mistreatment of a child that causes long-term or permanent damage.


narcokleptocracy

From narco- (“of or pertaining to narcotics or their trade and use”) + kleptocracy (“corrupt and dishonest government characterised by greed”).

prefix

United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

(rare) Drug lords and others involved in organized crime as a dominant group in society; the influence or rule exerted by this group.


corpocracy

A corporate bureaucracy, characterized by ineffective management.


sex offender

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

Soon after our case, another convicted sex offender was released back into our community and was accepted as if nothing had happened.

2014 August 29, Ruzwana Bashir, “The untold story of how a culture of shame perpetuates abuse. I know, I was a victim”, in The Guardian:

Somebody who has committed a crime of a sexual nature.

性犯罪者

somebody who has committed a crime of a sexual nature


chazzer

From Yiddish חזיר (khazer), from Hebrew חזיר (hazír).

(slang) A police officer, especially one who is corrupt.


highwayman

[…] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:

And the highwayman came riding— / Riding—riding— / The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1, stanza I, page 45:

I was a highwayman / Across the coach roads I did ride / With sword and pistol by my side.

(historical) A person, usually mounted on horseback, who robbed travelers on public roads.


jacking

The most common type of robberies by gang members is jackings, street robberies against persons. According to some gang members interviewed, jackings are not planned, but are rather crimes of opportunity.

1994, William B. Sanders, Gangbangs and Drive-Bys:


booting

en-noun

booting (countable and uncountable, plural bootings)

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

Coordinate term: chinging

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

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

Just got bail, three shootings
I ain’t gotta call up Pacman
To go up to country to do some bootings (bu-bu)
Tryna aim for your head
Pronounce man dead, pull up and suit him

2019 May 16, “P4DP”, in Digga D (lyrics), Double Tap Diaries EP:

(MLE, criminal slang) Homicide by gunfire.


tasking

Action officers receive taskings in many ways. A top boss will grab you in the hall and tell you to do something, some key official will give you multiple taskings right in the middle of your briefing, and you will pick up taskings in staff meetings […]

2007, Perry M. Smith, Daniel M. Gerstein, Assignment: Pentagon: How to Excel in a Bureaucracy:

(military, law enforcement) A task; an assigned item of work.


death march

the Bataan Death March

A forced movement of people, on foot, in such circumstances that many die during the journey.

死亡行軍 /死亡行军

forced movement of people in such circumstances that many die during the journey

(management) A project that requires a stretch of unsustainable overwork, or whose participants feel it is destined to fail.

デスマーチ

project requiring stretch of unsustainable overwork

Jacob Scheele was led to the gallows as a band played a death march.

2015, Daniel Allen Hearn, Legal Executions in New England, page 282:

Synonym of dead march (“mournful music for a funeral etc.”)


cook the books

en-verb

cook the books (third-person singular simple present cooks the books, present participle cooking the books, simple past and past participle cooked the books)

cooks the books (present singular third-person)
cooking the books (participle present)
cooked the books (participle past)
cooked the books (past)

From the mid-17th century. A metaphor based on cooking, whereby ingredients are changed, altered and improved. Thus financial statements can also be so modified to the benefit of the "cook".

Enron Corp., once a major U.S. corporation, is now famous for cooking the books.

(idiomatic) To manipulate accounting information, especially illegally.

сфальсифици́ровать фина́нсовую отчётность


snuff film

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Their whole case that porn is violent rests on classifying s/m porn as violent, and lumping it in with the snuff film.

1981 August 15, Nancy Wechsler, Gayle Rubin, Pat Califia, “Sadomasochism: Fears, Facts, Fantasies”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 5, page 7:

(film) A film that shows, or purports to show, the actual deliberate killing of one of the performers.


shoplifter

Shoplifters will be prosecuted.

Like their friends the "draggers," the "hoisters" or shoplifters are having a thin time these days, […]

1945, Jack Henry, What Price Crime?, page 92:

[…] just as the unchastised teenage shoplifter, mistaking society’s indulgence for applause, will evolve into a bloodthirsty hired killer, it is inevitable that the author of “The Pencil” will one day morph into the author of “The Toothpick.”

2007 October 28, Joe Queenan, “Consider the Toothpick”, in The New York Times:

A person who shoplifts, one who steals from shops.


lone wolf

They knew what it meant; even Joan had heard the cry of the lone wolf hunting in the lean time of winter, and of all things sad, all things lonely, all things demoniacal, the howl of a wolf stands alone.

1921, Max Brand, chapter XIII, in The Seventh Man:

I am a lone wolf, a solitary man, wandering through a world in which I have no part. I am wifeless—childless—who is it speaks of the childless as the dead twigs on the tree of life?

1899, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter I, in The Sleeper Awakes:

You'll never mix in. You'll be a lone wolf. I seen that right off. Wal, if a man can stand the loneliness, an' if he's quick on the draw, mebbe lone-wolfin' it is the best.

(figuratively) A person who avoids the company of others; a loner; an independent or solitary person.

Paddock's motives remain unclear. Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo described the shooting as a "lone wolf" attack. "We have no idea what his belief system was," he said.

2017 October 2, "Las Vegas shooting: At least 58 dead at Mandalay Bay Hotel", in bbc.com, BBC

A Tunisian man who killed two Swedish citizens in a terrorist attack in Brussels was “probably a lone wolf”, the Belgian prime minister has said, as Sweden and Italy called for security at Europe’s borders to be tightened.

2023 October 17, Lisa O'Carroll, Miranda Bryant, Lorenzo Tondo, “Killing of two Swedish football fans in Brussels ‘probably lone wolf’ attack”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(by extension) A criminal who acts alone, not as part of a group.


DI

en-noun

DI (countable and uncountable, plural DIs)

detective inspector
detective inspector#English

(law enforcement, Commonwealth) Initialism of detective inspector; a police rank.


Selected by the European Union as the 3-digit number fastest to dial on cellular and rotary phones without the likelihood of accidental dialing caused by hanging up a landline telephone, sometimes interpreted by phone networks as a 1.

When you call 112 in the United Kingdom, the call is automatically rerouted to 999 operators.

The telephone number for emergency services on all GSM cell phones and in the EU, Russia, United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Ukraine, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome, the Seychelles, Uganda, East Timor, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, North Macedonia, Vatican City, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Saint Vincent.

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo

The telephone number for law enforcement in South Korea, Norway, Colombia, Serbia, Lebanon, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, and Mauritius.


A variant of the British 999, originally selected as an appropriate number for rotary-dial telephones and adapted in Australia because of the need to dial an initial 0 from remote exchanges to connect to the main trunk lines.

When you call 000, the Telstra operator usually answers the phone with "Emergency. Police, fire, or ambulance?"

The telephone number for emergency services in Australia.


bait-and-switch

Despite Healy's argument that the Liberty Fund would go to worthwhile causes, many felt the Red Cross had deliberately misled donors by using September 11th in a bait-and-switch ploy.

2001 November 14, Jessica Reaves, “Red Faces at the Red Cross”, in Time:

The FTC commissioner, Rohit Chopra, called AT&T’s actions a “massive fraud”. “AT&T’s bait-and-switch scam is a good window into the many harms that result from dominant companies operating without the discipline of meaningful competition,” Chopra said in a statement.

2019 November 5, Rohit Chopra, quotee, “'Bait-and-switch scam': AT&T fined $60m over data throttling allegations”, in The Guardian:

Relating to use of bait and switch (offering one attractive exchange initially, but not honoring the offer) in business, politics, and elsewhere.


bait-and-switch

en-verb

bait-and-switch (third-person singular simple present bait-and-switches, present participle bait-and-switching, simple past and past participle bait-and-switched)

bait-and-switches (present singular third-person)
bait-and-switching (participle present)
bait-and-switched (participle past)
bait-and-switched (past)

Perhaps the most baffling and frustrating feature of the mortgage mess is that, to my knowledge, the House Financial Services Committee never held public hearings in which bait-and-switched homeowners testified as to how their mortgage payments doubled in just a few years[…]

2009, Jane White, America, Welcome to the Poorhouse […] , FT Press, →ISBN, page 64:

To my surprise, even shock, both of them spent the entire trip sputtering and whining—about being bait-and-switched when their employee-ownership shares of United Airlines had been evaporated by its recent bankruptcy, […]

2020 August 7, Kurt Andersen, “College-Educated Professionals Are Capitalism’s Useful Idiots”, in The Atlantic:

(transitive) To exploit using bait and switch.


roundhouse

Coordinate term: big house

[T]he gentlemen in the coffee room insisted upon the watch being called, or a constable. With considerable difficulty the two heroes were carried off to the round-house, and there lodged for the night.

1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 137

A circular prison, especially a small local lockup or station house.

(nautical, now historical) A privy near the bow of a vessel, especially as reserved for officers.

Crewe North Motive Power Depot is to be modernised completely. This includes the provision of a new coaling plant, ash handling plant, and two new locomotive sheds of the latest roundhouse type, each with 32 roads radiating from a 70-ft. dia. turntable.

1948 November and December, “Crewe M.P.D. to be Modernised”, in Railway Magazine, page 372:

Archaeologists working on HS2 in Birmingham have uncovered the remains of what is believed to be the world's oldest railway roundhouse at Curzon Street station.

2020 March 25, “Network News: HS2 work uncovers oldest roundhouse”, in Rail, page 16:

(rail transport) A circular building in which locomotives are housed, sometimes with a turntable.

депо

a circular building in which locomotives are housed

Coordinate term: wheelhouse

A central stone slab cist containing the burial was surrounded by a circles of stones placed on edge, probably to represent the round house in which the deceased had lived.

2019, Alan Staniforth, Cleveland Way, page 66:

(archaeology) A prehistoric dwelling typical of northwest Europe in the Iron Age and Bronze Age.

casa circular

(card games) In the game of pinochle, a meld consisting of a queen and king in each of the four suits.


abaddon

UK C19. From Abaddon, from Middle English, from Late Latin, from Ancient Greek Ἀβαδδών (Abaddṓn, “Abaddon”), from Hebrew אבדון (ābaddōn, “destruction, abyss”), from אבד (ābad, “to be lost, to perish”).

der

The prisoner, Money Moses, better known among thieves and fences as Moses the abaddon, has been, to my knowledge, for the last twenty years a receiver and dealer in stolen property.

c. 1839, Report of the Trial of the Great Gold Dust Robbery:

(archaic, British slang) An informer; a criminal who informs on other criminals to the authorities.


guardroom

A jail cell in which military prisoners are kept.


Black Maria

Unknown, though such vans were traditionally painted black. First attested in the 1830s.

The Upper Ten Thousand have plenty of cash—
At the Central Park, on the “Drive,” cut a dash;
They have their light wagons, fast horses beside;
In the free “Black Maria” the Lower Ten ride.

1867, Tony Pastor, “The Upper and Lower Ten Thousand”, in Tony Pastor’s Book of Six Hundred Comic Songs and Speeches:

(slang) A police van for transporting prisoners.


death squad

An armed group that carries out clandestine, extrajudicial killings.


six-pack

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

Officer Bahash then obtained a copy of Grant's photograph from the DMV and placed it in a six-person photograph array (also known as a “six-pack”) for possible identification by two earlier victims.

2008, John N. Ferdico, Henry F. Fradella, Christopher D. Totten, Criminal Procedure for the Criminal Justice Professional, 10th edition, page 792:

(US, informal, law enforcement) A selection of six photographs, including one of a suspect, used for identification by a witness.


crime against humanity

en-noun

crime against humanity (plural crimes against humanity)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-crime against humanity.wav

The Holocaust was a terrible crime against humanity; it took the lives of 6 million Jews, 2 million Poles, and hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, homosexuals, Russians, and the elderly and disabled.

Be faithful to your friend that doth entrust you; remembring that perfidiousness or falseness to a friend, is a crime against humanity, and all society.

1629, Richard Baxter, Christian Directory, IV.25:

Courage remained a virtue. And that exploitation of courage, if I may be allowed to say a thing so obvious, was the essential tragedy of the War, which, as everyone now agrees, was a crime against humanity.

1929, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man:

A Spanish judge has charged five suspected former leaders of the armed Basque separatist movement ETA with crimes against humanity for attacks carried out by the group after 2004 which killed 12 people.

(now chiefly law) A very destructive and immoral act; later specifically, something causing widespread human misery or loss of life; an atrocity.

جَرِيمَة ضِدَّ الْإِنْسَانِيَّةَ

a large-scale persecution of, or atrocity against, a body of people


gendarmerie

We must defend it till the Gendarmerie turn out. Keep after me.

1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, →OCLC, page 259:

A military body charged with police duties among the civilian population.


skimmer

(crime) A device used to read and record the magnetic code from a credit card for later fraudulent use.


commissary

From Late Latin commissarius, from commissus, past participle of committō (“to commit, entrust to”). Doublet of commissar.

A store primarily serving persons in an institution, most often soldiers or prisoners.

лавка

“We tried to provide for you while you were in there. We may not have put as much on your commissary as your in-laws, but what we gave was more to us.”

2018, Tayari Jones, An American Marriage, Oneworld Publications, page 183:

An account which a prisoner uses to buy provisions, or the balance of that account.


freelancing

(EMS, fire service, law enforcement) The act of performing one's duties outside of the chain of command and SOPs.


coppish

And it was early morning, and the world was moist, when the crystal-gazer's husband, a freak in knickerbockers with an open coppish and a sabbath gamp, came over the stones outside his house to meet the holy travellers.

a. 1954 (date written), Dylan Thomas, “The Holy Six”, in Adventures in the Skin Trade (A New Directions Paperbook; no. 183), New York, N.Y.: New Directions Publishing Corporation, published 1969, →ISBN, page 129:


slush fund

Originally in reference to money for miscellaneous uses that sailors made by selling slush (“a soft mixture of grease and other ingredients”).

He is said to have used his party’s slush fund to buy votes in the election.

7: CERN bestows slush fund on the LHC. Take all pennies from the CERN space.

2008 September 28, Illiad [pen name; J. D. Frazer], “The Large Hadron Collider Game”, in Userfriendly.org, archived from the original on 2019-05-07:

To do this, [the Lord Mayor] has at his disposal a multibillion-pound slush fund for use in lobbying the UK government and governments around the world to bring in laws that are friendly to banks and multinational companies.

2017, Jason Hickel, “The Tax Evaders”, in The Divide […] , London: William Heinemann, →ISBN:

(finance) Money stored for illegal or dishonest purposes.

pimeä rahasto

money stored for illegal or dishonest purposes


Mr. Big

Now the quality of arrests will presumably receive an emphasis that long overdue. The “Mr. Bigs” will properly become targets.

1971 November 26, “Getting ‘Mr. Big’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

In this view the very idea of there being these marvelous Government secrets is comforting. As long as our guys have the secrets, we are safe. If Mr. Big, or Blofeld, or Ming of the planet Mungo, or the K.G.B. should get our secrets, they might be able to control the world.

1973 May 26, Russell Baker, “The Mr. Big Myth”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(informal) The head of a crime syndicate, a high-ranking criminal.


murther

en-verb

murther (third-person singular simple present murthers, present participle murthering, simple past and past participle murthered)

murthers (present singular third-person)
murthering (participle present)
murthered (participle past)
murthered (past)

/ˈmɜː(ɹ)ðə(ɹ)/

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

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

What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murther me?

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:


plainclothes

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

Ordinary civilian clothes, rather than uniform.


John Law

A personification of law enforcement; a police officer.


statie

Alan supposed the Staties would arrest him if they ran across him while they pursued other lines of investigation, but otherwise, no. They had more important things to do.

(New England, slang, law enforcement) A state trooper.


fruit machine

From fruit + machine.
* (slot machine): From originating with machines with fruit pictures
* (criminology): From being a machine used to identify fruits (“homosexuals”)
* (food): From being a machine containing fruits

(Canada, criminology, slang) A device developed to identify homosexual people by measuring their physical responses to different kinds of pornography.


hatchet man

The crime lord dispatched his favorite hatchet man to make sure the witness would not testify.


assume the position

assume the position (third-person singular simple present assumes the position, present participle assuming the position, simple past and past participle assumed the position)

assumes the position (present singular third-person)
assuming the position (participle present)
assumed the position (participle past)
assumed the position (past)

A day or two later we took down another seller and this time the rookie performs the search. Assume the position! he tells the guy. So the guy leans against the side of the car.

2002, James Harper Walker, Inside Your Local Police:

(idiomatic, US, law enforcement) To turn away, with one's hands in a visible and unmovable position, so that one can be searched.


stakeout

The police had a stakeout in place where they expected the crime to occur.

The act of watching a location or people, generally covertly.


chummy

What happens when the Old Bill turns up and want to look at 'chummies^([sic]) dental records, guv, 'cos 'e's bitten a bloke's ear off in the pub'?

2002, Roy C. Lilley, Paul Lambden, The Tool Kit for Dental Risk Management, page 21:

(law enforcement slang) Nickname for a person, especially a suspect or criminal.


kirkbuzzer

(UK, archaic) A robber who preys on churches.


PC Plod

From the policeman in Enid Blyton's Noddy books.

(British, informal, derogatory) A policeman (implying that he is dull and slow).


raper

"Jesus Christ!" Grimm says, profanely pushing Hightower aside as he goes on to shoot Christmas and to emasculate him, according to the custom of lynchers punishing the dark rapers of white women.

1963, Edwin M. Moseley, Pseudonyms of Christ in the Modern Novel: Motifs and Methods, page 149:

Turning round, Cleitophon finds he is standing by a painter's studio which is exhibiting a painting of the whole story of the rape of Philomela, including the tapestry she weaves telling her own story after her raper, Tereus, has cut out her tongue.

1995, Simon Goldhill, Foucault's Virginity, page 71:

(informal) A person who has raped someone; a rapist.


watchhouse

A small prison attached to a police station, usually used on a temporary basis.


wooden-top

The expression may be a reference to the wooden construction of a bobby's custodian helmet.

Immediately a big wooden-top came in. He was young and blond.

1988, Derek Raymond, The Devil's Home on Leave, Ballantine Books, page 151:

It is Detective Chief Superintendent Cohn Harpur, one of the bosses, but just a wooden-top like all the rest.

1991, Bill James, The Lolita Man, W. W. Norton & Company, page 41:

(British, informal, idiomatic) A uniformed police officer.


hijacker

/ˈhaɪˌd͡ʒækəɹ/


good time

en-noun

good time (countable and uncountable, plural good times)

let the good times roll

a good time was had by all

Q: Did you have a good time at your friend's wedding reception? A: Yes, it was a good time for everyone.

(countable) A period of time spent doing some pleasant, enjoyable or entertaining activity.

Sex on female units is treated as a "disgusting and degrading practice," and women have lost accrued good-time and gone to solitary confinement for as little as a peck on the cheek.

1984 August 18, R. L. Richardson, “Women In Cages”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 6, page 7:

(uncountable) The reduction of a prisoner's sentence for good conduct while imprisoned.


gaffle

From Middle English gaffolle, a borrowing from Middle Dutch gaffel, gafel (“fork”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *gabulu (“fork”), related to Old English gafol, ġeafel (“fork”).

(historical, weaponry) A portable fork of iron or wood in which the heavy musket formerly in use was rested that it might be accurately aimed and fired.


gaffle

en-verb

gaffle (third-person singular simple present gaffles, present participle gaffling, simple past and past participle gaffled)

gaffles (present singular third-person)
gaffling (participle present)
gaffled (participle past)
gaffled (past)

In other words , you know the trouble around here — and this is pertinent , too — that there have been too many committees in which the minority has allowed itself to be gaffled into submission and silence.

1958, René Albert Wormser, Foundations, Their Power and Influence, page 363:

They then stole a maroon Oldsmobile Delta Eighty-Eight from a parking lot on Harvard Avenue and resumed their search for a victim to “gaffle."

1994, North eastern reporter. second series - Volume 623, page 76:

SHEILA: I'm late — 'cause I just got gaffled G ROC (Overlapping): Got gaffled?! Whatchu mean you got gaffled?!

2004, Harry Justin Elam, Robert Alexander, The Fire this Time: African-American Plays for the 21st Century, page 410:

Boo savored the sweetness of strength and gaffled his peers for their lunch money.

2008, Jeffery Renard Allen, Holding Pattern: Stories, page 226:

I thought back to the last time I'd seen my first and only boyfriend, recalling his smile as he'd gone off to do battle for me, saving me from getting gaffled.

2012, Kresley Cole, Poison Princess, page 149:

There really are no paying customers with any sense of good, orderly direction going to any perceivable destination with purpose, except to sponge off of others or to gaffle intending drug buyers.

2015, Douglas Meriwether, The Dao of Doug 2: the Art of Driving a Bus, page 154:

So I commenced to yell, And old man Pease he hugged his knees and gaffled to his pail.

1916, Holman Day, Up in Maine: Stories of Yankee Life Told in Verse, page 189:

The honey birds gaffle – I'm coming to you soon, I'm coming to you as they leave , and one insect starts to call, and will call all night, with the exact monotonous cheep-cheep of young English house-sparrows in June.

Leaving that to the rappers, it's their business But to be down or not to be down Is still debatable for plausible reasons For one seldom knows the directions others are traveling in Or if one-time wants to do some gaffling

2011, Hakim Askia, Compelling Thoughts, page 125:

To talk without a purpose, usually about inane or pointless topics; to babble.


skimming

en-noun

skimming (countable and uncountable, plural skimmings)

(crime) The act of fraudulently copying a magnetic stripe from a magnetic stripe card, such as found on credit cards and bank cards, through the use of a skimmer


OP

OP (countable and uncountable, plural OPs)

(military, law enforcement) Initialism of observation post.


free energy

Helmholtz free energy
Helmholtz free energy

absolute temperature
absolute temperature

(physical chemistry) The energy available in a particular chemical system to do useful work. In more detail:

Helmholtz free energy, A: the internal energy of a system minus the product of its entropy and absolute temperature.

Gibbs free energy, G: the enthalpy of a system minus the product of its entropy and absolute temperature.


crusher

From crush + -er (agent noun suffix), or, for one who elicits a crush, + -er (patient suffix).


underhanded

en-adj

underhanded (comparative more underhanded, superlative most underhanded)

more underhanded (comparative)
most underhanded (superlative)

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His underhanded trick backfired and he was disqualified.

They were actually underhanded threats to call off the lawsuit and then all insurance agents in the hospital district would get a dividend for the premiums paid.

2007, Dewey Anderson, When Satan Came to Moose Lake, →ISBN, page 118:

Was the federal government being underhanded and hypocritical in officially praising the merits of federalism, but in missing no opportunity to promote Canadian nationalism?

2009, Alain-G. Gagnon, Contemporary Canadian Federalism, →ISBN:

The pap phoned and we told him that Kirschner probably peddled them himself and now was accusing you of acting underhanded so he did not have out to pay out any more dough.

2010, Al Walentis, Polly Kahl, The Secret World of Jon and Kate, →ISBN, page 152:

There were underhanded ploys that were effective but were deplored by the hospital administration.

2014, Carl Douglass, The Long Climb, →ISBN:


carding

en-noun

carding (countable and uncountable, plural cardings)

(uncountable) The fraudulent trafficking of credit card details.

(Canada, law enforcement) A police practice where an officer stops, questions, and documents information from a person to gather intelligence, when no crime or suspicion of crime has been committed.


pursuivant

From Middle English pursevant et al., from Old French pursuivant, present participle of pursuivre (“to follow”). Doublet of pursuant.

(law enforcement, by extension) A warrant officer.


criminally

en-adv

criminally (comparative more criminally, superlative most criminally)

more criminally (comparative)
most criminally (superlative)

The move will transfer the facility’s more than 200 prisoners, including 50 deemed criminally insane, from a fortresslike building with bars on the windows and cement walls and ceilings into a unit of Manhattan Psychiatric Center, a civilian hospital close by on Wards Island.

2019 December 13, Annie Correal, “Why Workers Fear Moving 50 Criminally Insane Patients”, in The New York Times:


criminality

en-noun

criminality (countable and uncountable, plural criminalities)

From French criminalité, from Latin criminalitas, from Latin criminalis. See criminal.

(uncountable) The state of being criminal.

rampant criminality

The memorandum of understanding between the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, the Office of Rail and Road and the police states: "In the absence of a clear indication that serious criminality has caused the accident, RAIB will normally have precedence in respect of the investigation and will assume lead responsibility for the investigation."

2020 December 2, Philip Haigh, “A winter of discontent caused by threat of union action”, in Rail, page 63:

The storm-centre of a combined newspaper attack lasting for months, Daylight's character had been torn to shreds. There was no fact in his history that had not been distorted into a criminality or a vice. This public making of him over into an iniquitous monster had pretty well crushed any lingering hope he had of getting acquainted with Dede Mason.

1910 October, Jack London, chapter VIII, in Burning Daylight, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, part II, pages 181–182:


embracery

embracery (countable and uncountable, plural embraceries)

(law) An attempt to bribe or illegally influence a jury or a member of a jury to one side or the other.


FSB

From Russian ФСБ (FSB), initialism of Федеральная Служба Безопасности (Federalʹnaja Služba Bezopasnosti, “Federal Security Service”).

Possible victims included Roman Tsepov, Putin’s bodyguard in 1990s St Petersburg, who died after drinking tea in 2004 at a local FSB office.

2020 August 20, Luke Harding, “Alexei Navalny and the long history of poisoned Kremlin critics”, in The Guardian:

(initialism, Russia, politics, espionage, law enforcement) The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.


blackmailer

This sex blackmailer and dryhanded public virgin was lunching secretly each week with the East Coast spokesman for organized crime, Frank Costello, in N.Y. Central Park's Tavern on the Green (according to the Time magazine obituary).

1981, Geoffrey Rips, Anne Janowitz, Nancy Joyce Peters, The Campaign against the underground press, page 33:

Ordinary people have already been face-swapped into videos for humorous or prank purposes and there is no reason to believe that abusers, harassers, stalkers, and blackmailers will not soon be face-swapping victims into compromising video as part of their arsenal.

2018 April, Larry Zimmerman, “Cheap and Easily Manipulated Video”, in The Journal of the Kansas Bar Association, Topeka, Kan.: Kansas Bar Association, →ISSN, page 21:


tooler

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Pickpockets took to housebreaking and housebreakers joined gangs of street thieves; cracksmen's mistresses were often toolers and shoplifters.

1970, Kellow Chesney, The Anti-society: An Account of the Victorian Underworld, page 168:

A tooler was the most elite of the pickpockets, a planner and plotter, a boy with brains, daring and courage. At any one time Ikey hoped for four toolers in the making and two fully blown and working at the top of their trade.

2010, Bryce Courtenay, The Potato Factory, volume 1, page 103:


Bluebeard

Calque of French Barbe-Bleue (literally “blue beard”).

calque

A famous fairy tale written by Charles Perrault in 1697 about a violent nobleman who has the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of his current wife to avoid the same fate.


ethnocide

en-noun

ethnocide (countable and uncountable, plural ethnocides)

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The deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic group, accomplished either by destroying the members of the group (genocide) or by destroying its cultural identity (culturicide).


human trafficking

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

A criminal activity in which people are recruited, harbored, transported, bought, or kidnapped to serve an exploitative purpose, such as sexual slavery, forced labor, or child soldiery.

mensehandel

criminal activity in which people are recruited, etc. to serve an exploitative purpose


sexual slavery

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

(criminology) A criminal activity that involves forced sexual acts upon a person who is usually held hostage as a slave.


criminalness

The criminalness, rebellion, transgression, the disobedience that is in sin, …

1655, John Owen, Vindiciae Evangelicae, published in The Works of John Owen, (William H. Goold, editor), page 515

There is a great deal of difference as to the criminalness of false persuasions upon this account: the same error which one person may hold very pardonably, (as being, without much fault of his own, either through weakness of parts, or prejudice from education, or want or opportunity of knowing better, unavoidably, in a manner, led into it; I say, that very same error,) may be extremely dangerous in other persons, that have better parts, [...]

1754, John Sharp, The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Sharp, volume III, fifth edition:

The Constitution of the United States permits the suffrage of women. . . . Under it legally constituted women—as to age, freedom from criminalness, etc.—may vote for all officers from president to township supervisor.

1896, W. S. Harwood, “Constitutional Suffrage for Women”, in North American Review, volume 162, number 474, retrieved 2010-12-05, page 632:

(rare, dated) The state or quality of being criminal.


drawlatch

A fastener consisting of a latch body mounted on one side of a door or lid, and a hook or catch mounted on the opposite side. When the latch is engaged, the hook or catch pulls the two sides tightly together, creating a secure closure.


superintendency

superintendency (countable and uncountable, plural superintendencies)

(uncountable) The condition of being a superintendent.


fraudulently

en-adv

fraudulently (comparative more fraudulently, superlative most fraudulently)

more fraudulently (comparative)
most fraudulently (superlative)

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From Middle English fraudulently; equivalent to fraudulent + -ly.

But there is one study that has been interpreted to suggest it is at least possible. It found that between 32,000 and 2.8 million noncitizen voters might have fraudulently cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election. The study, based on a survey of 38,000 people after that election, has been under fire since it was published in 2014.

2017 January 26, Nate Cohn, “Illegal Voting Claims, and Why They Don’t Hold Up”, in The New York Times:


fraudulence

en-noun

fraudulence (countable and uncountable, plural fraudulences)

From Old French fraudulence, from Latin fraudulentia (“deceitfulness, disposition to defraud; fraudulence”), from fraudulentus (“deceitful, fraudulent”) + -ia (suffix forming abstract nouns). Fraudulentus is derived from fraus (“deceit, fraud”) (from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrew- (“to mislead”)) + -ulentus (“abounding in, full of”).

der

I ſuppoſe ſome of my friends, to whom I read the firſt part, gave notice of my deſign, and, perhaps, ſold the treacherous intelligence at a higher price than the fraudulence of trade will now allow me for my book.

1759 May 5, Samuel Johnson, “[The Idler]”, in The Universal Chronicle, or, Weekly Gazette, number 55, [London]: [J. Payne], →OCLC; republished in The Works of Samuel Johnson, new edition, volume VII, London: Printed for T[homas] Longman et al., 1796, page 223:

We should therefore not make too much of the fraudulence of all that on-screen wailing. Just because North Korean TV never films anything before rehearsing all spontaneity out of it does not mean the average citizen was unmoved.

2012 January 7, B. R. Myers, “Dynasty, North Korean-style”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2012-01-08:

Among other fraudulences, Enron perfected the art of “mark to market” accounting, tagging mere estimates of future profits as actual on-the-books assets.

2015, Elizabeth Hass, Terry Christensen, Peter J. Haas, Projecting Politics: Political Messages in American Films, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 280:

The condition of being fraudulent; deceitfulness.


flatfoot

From flat + foot. Piecewise doublet of platypus.

(colloquial, archaic, derogatory, law enforcement) (plural typically flatfoots) A policeman.


contract killer

en-noun

contract killer (plural contract killers)

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A person who contracts to kill a specified person for an agreed sum of money.


gonk

A proprietary name of arbitrary formation.

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


QPP

QPP (countable and uncountable, plural QPPs)

Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec#English

(law enforcement, Canada, uncountable) Initialism of Quebec Provincial Police (Sûreté du Québec); the police force of the Canadian province of Quebec..


muckraker

John Bunyan
The Pilgrim's Progress
Theodore Roosevelt
muckraker

From muck + raker. Believed to have been coined following a 1906 speech by United States President Theodore Roosevelt, in which he likened the investigative journalist to ‘the Man with the Muck-rake’, a character in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.

The paper gave a start to the theater critic Hilton Als and the novelist Colson Whitehead, both recipients of the Pulitzer Prize. Its resident muckraker, Wayne Barrett, took aim at New York developers and politicians for nearly 40 years, and his obsessive work on Donald J. Trump has become a resource for reporters covering the president today.

2018 August 31, Tyler Pager, Jaclyn Peiser, “The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes”, in The New York Times:

en:principled justice-seeking type of investigative journalist

(US) One who investigates and exposes issues of corruption that often violate widely held values; e.g. one who exposes political corruption or the poor conditions in prisons.


criminal offence

criminal offence (plural criminal offences)

Wearing a face covering also remains a requirement on all Transport for London services, where it has become a Condition of Carriage. This means that while non-compliance is no longer a criminal offence and punishable with a fine, passengers can still be asked to leave or prevented from boarding.

2022 February 9, “Network News: Regulations on face coverings risk leaving passengers confused”, in RAIL, number 950, page 6:


freelancer

(EMS, fire service, law enforcement) One who performs duties outside of the chain of command and SOPs.


juvie

juvie (countable and uncountable, plural juvies)

From juvenile + -ie with elision; morphologically analogous to bougie = bourgeoisie + -ie/-y.

youth detention centre
youth detention centre#English

(colloquial) Synonym of juvenile hall (youth detention centre).

établissement pénitentiaire pour mineurs


fenya

A Russian cant language used among criminals.


send up

en-verb

send up (third-person singular simple present sends up, present participle sending up, simple past and past participle sent up)

sends up (present singular third-person)
sending up (participle present)
sent up (participle past)
sent up (past)

The judge sent him up for three years.

"I guess you're a wise one, all right, but what's the use? I tell you we've got enough on you already to send you up. You might as well talk straight."

1913, Rex Stout, Her Forbidden Knight, Carroll & Graf, published 1997, →ISBN, page 161:

(transitive, US, slang) To put in prison.


dummy bid

(business) A bid made at an auction, by a dummy bidder acting in collusion with the auctioneer or vendor, designed to deceive genuine bidders into paying more.


prison-bound

en-adj

prison-bound (comparative more prison-bound, superlative most prison-bound)

more prison-bound (comparative)
most prison-bound (superlative)


go bad

en-verb

go bad (third-person singular simple present goes bad, present participle going bad, simple past went bad, past participle gone bad)

goes bad (present singular third-person)
going bad (participle present)
went bad (past)
gone bad (participle past)

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(of a person or entity) to cease to be reputable and instead become delinquent, criminal, immoral, corrupt or poorly behaved.


prison chaser

A "prison chaser" is a soldier assigned to the task of guarding military prisoners who have been assigned and are performing fatigue detail.

1943, John Riley Craf, Army Selectee's Handbook for Those Men who Will be Called for Duty Under the Selective Training ..., page 50:

When that training was complete, I was given temporary assignment as a prison chaser (guard in a Brig).

2003, Frank Murphy, Wia, Corpsman Up, page 154:

My first experience as a prison chaser wasn't all that pleasant. One burly, bald headed prisoner had given me a hard time.

2004, Joseph Quitman Johnson, Baby of Bataan: Memoir of a 14 Year Old Soldier in World War II, page 107:

According to Ronal Branson's website, he joined the U.S. military in 1963 and was assigned to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he became a "prison chaser", an individual who oversaw prison work detail.

2006, Issue Brief - A Public Policy Paper of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies March 2006:

(military) A prison guard; particularly one who guards military prisoners on fatigue duty.


revenuer

From revenue + -er, reflecting the U.S. Treasury Department's former Bureau of Internal Revenue (a predecessor of the IRS and ATF), because the administrative mechanism for enforcing Prohibition originated in excise tax administration; Wikipedia gives details at Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives § History.

‘Mister, if yo're another revenuer, I kin tell ye y'aint gonna leave this valley alive.’

I don’t know, but I should start by gettin’ me a rifle: we got the reveneurs a-comin’.

2020 April 28, Kimberly Altamirano, “CPAPs, Hickeys and Biscuits” (0:20:03 from the start), in Lynda Tarryk, director, The Conners, season 2, episode 19 (television), spoken by Dan Conner (John Goodman), United States of America: Mohawk Productions / Sara + Tom, via ABC:

(US, regional, now historical) A government official who enforces laws prohibiting the illegal distillation of alcohol.


chief constable

en-noun

chief constable (plural chief constables)

(British) The chief of police of most territorial UK police forces, except the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police.


mump

en-verb

mump (third-person singular simple present mumps, present participle mumping, simple past and past participle mumped)

mumps (present singular third-person)
mumping (participle present)
mumped (participle past)
mumped (past)

Perhaps borrowed through obsolete Dutch mompen (“to cheat, swindle, deceive”), according to Kroonen, a derivative of Proto-Germanic *mump- (“to stain”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *mm̥bʰ-neh₂- Also akin to German mimpfeln (“to mumble”), Icelandic mumpa (“to take into the mouth”). See also English mum.
While Kroonen claims Ancient Greek μέμφομαι (mémphomai, “I blame, accuse”) and the Germanic forms are reconcilable and related, Beekes rejects this, stating that Germanic -p- cannot here correspond to Greek -φ- and that this etymological connection is not widely considered reliable.

cog

(Of a police officer) to accept a small gift or bribe in exchange for services.


murder-suicide

Pladl, pictured, ended up killing his daughter, his baby and himself in a triple murder-suicide[.]

2018 November 26, Emma Parry, “Woman who fell in love with her brother tells how she’s on a mission to legalise INCEST, allow family members to marry and even have babies together”, in The Sun:

(criminology) A murder in which the killer subsequently commits suicide.


TIC

en-noun

TIC (countable and uncountable, plural TICs)

TICs must be admitted by a defendant in addition to the crimes for which they have been convicted.

offence to be taken into consideration#English

(countable, UK, criminal law, law enforcement) Initialism of offence to be taken into consideration.


plainclothesman

Coordinate term: plainclotheswoman

A police officer (especially a detective) who wears civilian clothes when on duty.


Camorra

From Italian camorra, from a Neapolitan word supposedly from Spanish camorra (“dispute, quarrel”).

A secret crime organization from Naples, Italy, equivalent to the Mafia of Sicily.


lust murder

lust murder (countable and uncountable, plural lust murders)

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Despite the serial aspect of these killings, lust murder still remains a distinct subcategory of both sexual and serial murder. It is also referred to as erotophonophilia, one of the most extreme forms of paraphilia.

2003, Eric Hickey, Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime, SAGE, →ISBN, page 281:

Murder for sexual gratification, often involving mutilation.


federale

[fɛdəˈɹɑːli]

Back-formation from the plural, from Mexican Spanish federales, from federal.

(informal, chiefly California, also MLE slang and Hispanic slang) A federal law enforcement officer, usually belonging to the United States government.


spearphishing

From spear + phishing, modeled on spearfishing.

(computing, Internet) Phishing against a small group of selected targets who are more likely to be attracted.


suicide by cop

(informal) A suicide in which a person points a firearm at an armed police officer to provoke them to shoot.


democide

democide (countable and uncountable, plural democides)

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Based on Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos, “people”) + -cide.

(Mass) murder of people by a government which has power over them.


water police

The police department charged with patrolling harbours and waterways by boat.


snatch and run

/ˈsnætʃ ən ˈɹʌn/

Your snatch-and-run Reader, your miserable compiler of 'Beauties' is a mere chattering ape.

1870, Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, “Essay Critical and Elucidatory on the Poetry of Lord Brooke”, in Alexander B. Grosart, editor, The Works in Verse and Prose Complete of the Right Honourable Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke: […] In Four Volumes, volume II, [s.l.]: Printed for private circulation, →OCLC, page xiv:

[I]t was doubtful if even the 50% discount that has prevailed for several years could be continued in view of the increasing number of so-called “snatch and run” losses on grade floor premises—few, if any, of which are prevented by burglar alarm systems.

1922 November 17, Proceedings of the Casualty Actuarial Society, volume 9, number 19, New York, N.Y.: Casualty Actuarial Society, →OCLC:

One commonplace theft was the snatch-and-run perpetrated around the central business area by boys or young men. They stole newspapers, boots, pants, coats, shirts, and caps. The shops of the era were cluttered with goods and many had outdoor displays and items hanging from doorways.

1995, John C. Weaver, “The Enduring Circumstances of Violence and Theft”, in Crimes, Constables, and Courts: Order and Transgression in a Canadian City, 1816–1970, Montreal, Que., Kingston, Ont.: McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN, page 242:

A fine example of this type of situation can be drawn from the US experience in Somalia were locals had perfected the "snatch and run." Crowds of up to 300 thieves would swarm military vehicles, slowed by strategically placed roadblocks, and snatch both personal gear and weapons before disappearing into the crowd.

1996, Peacekeeping & International Relations, Toronto, Ont.: Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9, column 1:

Till tap […] While store employee has cash drawer open, money is grabbed and the thief flees (snatch and run).

2012, Kären Matison Hess, Christine Hess Orthmann, Henry Lim Cho, “Crime in the United States: Offenses, Offenders, Victims”, in Introduction to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, 10th edition, Clifton Park, N.Y.: Delmar/Cengage Learning, →ISBN, section I (The Evolution of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice), table 3.4 (Forms of Taking and Types of Theft), page 86:

(often attributively or figuratively) An unsophisticated method of committing robbery by grabbing someone's property and attempting to flee with it.


second-degree murder

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

tappo

act or crime of murder with intent, but without premeditation

roughly equivalent concept in Finnish law

szándékos, de nem előre megfontolt szándékkal elkövetett emberölés

(law, chiefly US, Canada) The criminal offence of murder in a form defined as less serious than first-degree murder; the precise distinction may vary by jurisdiction but typically involves second-degree murder being intentional but not premeditated.


vic

(Ryotaro Dojima): We haven't found the cause of death for the first vic, and now we've got a second one just like it […]

2008, Atlus Co., Ltd., Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (04/16, Evening)

We did find some black fibers stuck between the victim's teeth, presumably from a glove, and lastly, seeing as the vic was found completely naked, we can't process her clothes for any potential evidence.

“The vic was found by some birdwatchers at the Theler Wetlands,” he began.

(law enforcement, slang) A victim of a homicide.


blagging

blagging (countable and uncountable, plural blaggings)

Usual petty-theft beginnings. Graduated to the bigger stuff—jump-ups, blaggings. Eventually controlled a few similar types down east somewhere.

1980, Anthony Heal, Man in the Middle, page 64:

(uncountable, criminal slang) Robbery; (countable) an instance of this.


make off with

en-verb

make off with (third-person singular simple present makes off with, present participle making off with, simple past and past participle made off with)

makes off with (present singular third-person)
making off with (participle present)
made off with (participle past)
made off with (past)


RUC

Whereas the R.U.C. was highly militarized and overwhelmingly Protestant, the current force has tried to be more representative of the community it polices — although because of a “substantial” terrorist threat from paramilitary groups opposed to the peace process, it is the only police force in the United Kingdom whose members regularly carry firearms.

2023 September 5, Megan Specia, “Northern Ireland Police Chief Resigns Amid Mounting Scandals”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Royal Ulster Constabulary
w:Royal Ulster Constabulary

(Northern Ireland, historical, law enforcement) Initialism of Royal Ulster Constabulary (now known as the PSNI)


conflict of interest

en-noun

conflict of interest (countable and uncountable, plural conflicts of interest)

Grassley continues to probe Abedin’s potential conflicts of interest when she was getting four different paychecks at once. “We know she set up dinners for Secretary Clinton and her private-sector employers and e-mailed private-sector employees from government accounts,” he says.

2016 January 31, “Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton’s Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?”, in Vanity Fair, retrieved 2016-01-21:

Rishi Sunak is facing questions over a potential conflict of interest after it emerged a childcare firm part owned by his wife is to benefit from major changes in the budget.

2023 March 29, Rowena Mason, “Rishi Sunak’s childcare policy risks conflict of interest with wife’s firm”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(law) A situation in which an individual or legal entity in a position of trust (such as an attorney, investment advisor, broker, politician, executive, director, scientist or physician) has competing professional or personal interests.

تَضَارُب مَصَالِح

conflicting interest in position of trust


black bag

A pouch or case containing burglary tools.


snavel

en-verb

snavel (third-person singular simple present snavels, present participle snavelling, simple past and past participle snavelled)

snavels (present singular third-person)
snavelling (participle present)
snavelled (participle past)
snavelled (past)

Probably related to snaffle, which may be from Dutch snavel.

1902, Barbara Baynton, Bush Studies, 2009, Sydney University Press, page 59,
Then he missed his silk handkerchief. “Ghost!” he said, breathing heavily. “Mag′s snavelled it! […] ”

Billy May said he made his first electric guitars after talking to an American named Paul Bigsley, who claimed to be the inventor of the Tremolo Lever, which idea, according to Billy, was “snavelled” by Fender and improved upon.

1996, Lorene Ruymar, The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and Its Great Hawaiian Musicians, page 42:


bagnio

From Italian bagno, from Latin balneum (“bath”). Doublet of bain, balaneion, and banya.

(obsolete) In Turkey, a prison for slaves.


deadbeat dad

(by extension, idiomatic, derogatory, informal) A man who is voluntarily absent and uncaring towards his children, especially one who leaves them entirely in their mother's care.


criminalist

A person who specializes in criminal law.


crime scene

The Police may declare a crime scene so nobody is allowed near, and the idea of allowing trains to pass on an adjacent line would horrify the increasing crowd of bystanders.

2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 43:

The location of a crime, especially one at which forensic evidence is collected in a controlled manner.


safecracker

His fingers were slender and delicate, an evolutionary advantage for a safecracker.

2023, Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto, Fleet, page 281:

касоразбивач

translation one who practices safecracking


bunching

en-noun

bunching (countable and uncountable, plural bunchings)

(uncountable) The illegitimate supplying of laboratory animals that are actually kidnapped pets or illegally trapped strays.


law enforcement

Law enforcement is the duty of police, sheriffs and other government officials.

The task of ensuring obedience to the law.


pentito

Borrowed from Italian pentito (“repentant”).

According to a pentito in the 2004 DDA investigation, 50 percent of the shops in Naples alone are actually run by the Camorra.

2007, Roberto Saviano, translated by Virginia Jewiss, Gomorrah, Pan, published 2017, page 50:

A criminal who cooperates with police or government authorities and testifies against or provides harmful information on fellow criminals; a turncoat or informant, usually a former Mafioso.


jugging

jugging (countable and uncountable, plural juggings)

(slang, criminology) A crime where a suspect observes a customer at a bank or high-end store and then follows the customer after they leave the establishment in order to steal their money or valuables.


12 (countable and uncountable, plural 12s)

(slang, US, derogatory) Collectively, police or law enforcement.

Collectively, police or law enforcement.
See also: fuck 12


high seas

I was out on the high seas yesterday and got myself a new mathematics book.

copyright infringement
copyright infringement

(slang) Regions of the Internet in which piracy (i.e. copyright infringement) is prevalent.


mass murder

The killing of a large number of people over a short period of time.


mass murderer

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

殺戮眾多的人 /杀戮众多的人

someone who commits a mass murder — see also serial killer


air marshal

T.S.A. said its office of inspection makes quality assurance visits to ensure that the air marshals are properly prepared for their missions. […] Employees with the air marshals view their jobs as crucial to overall efforts to protect airplanes and airports from terrorist attacks.

2018 April 25, Ron Nixon, “Scandals and Investigations, but Few Arrests, for Air Marshals Program”, in The New York Times:

(US, law enforcement) An armed, undercover guard on a commercial-airline flight.