aggravated

en-adj

aggravated (comparative more aggravated, superlative most aggravated)

more aggravated (comparative)
most aggravated (superlative)

/ˈæɡ.ɹə.veɪ̯tɪd/

(criminology) Of or characterized by factors that increase the heinousness or offensiveness of the criminal offense.


blog

→ Bulgarian: блог (blog)

→ Catalan: blog

→ Czech: blogovat

→ Danish: blogge

tooltip

reshaped by analogy or addition of morphemes

→ Dutch: blog, ⇒ bloggen

→ Faroese: blogga

→ Finnish: blogata

→ French: bloguer

→ German: Blog

→ Hungarian: blogol

→ Icelandic: blogga

→ Italian: blog, ⇒ bloggare

→ Macedonian: блог (blog)

→ Polish: blog

desc

→ Portuguese: blogue, blog (unadapted spelling)

→ Russian: блог (blog)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic: бло̀г

Latin: blòg

→ Spanish: blog, ⇒ bloguear

→ Swahili: blogu

→ Thai: บล็อก (blɔ́k)

→ Turkish: blog

→ Yoruba: búlọ́ọ̀gù

Rebracketing of weblog. The Oxford English Dictionary says the shortened word was coined 23 May 1999 and references the "Jargon Watch" article in an issue of an online magazine which attributes the shortening to Peter Merholz. The form blog is now so much more common than weblog that some misspell the latter as webblog, as if from web + blog.

So you see, the blog has been around since the beginning of the web; that is how basic the concept is. Today's blogs, and the activity of blogging, have taken on more meaning, but the concept of it all is still very simple and rooted in the beginning and intentions of the web itself.

2002, Biz Stone, chapter 1, in Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content, Indianapolis: New Riders Pub., →ISBN, page 4:

Have you tried these, darling? They’re tempura zucchini flowers. Japanese-Italian fusion! My own invention. Shall I photograph it? We can put it on our blog.

2012, Zadie Smith, NW, London: Penguin Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 150:

(Internet) A website that allows users to reflect, share opinions, and discuss various topics in the form of an online journal, sometimes letting readers comment on their posts. Most blogs are written in a slightly informal tone (personal journals, news, businesses, etc.)


infanticide

en-noun

infanticide (countable and uncountable, plural infanticides)

(law, Canada) The criminal offence of killing of a newborn, committed by its mother while psychologically disturbed by the effects of childbirth or lactation, not regarded as murder.


carrot

carrot (countable and uncountable, plural carrots)

→ Fijian: kareti

→ Malay: karot

→ Tagalog: karot

→ Thai: แครอท (kɛɛ-rɔ̀t)

From Middle English karette and Middle French carotte, both from Latin carōta, from Ancient Greek καρωτόν (karōtón). Doublet of carotte and related to caraway. Displaced native Middle English more, from Old English more, moru (“edible root, parsnip, carrot”), related to German Möhre (“carrot”).
* Noun sense of "motivational tool" refers to carrot and stick.
* Verb sense in felt manufacture refers to the orange colour of drying furs.

Daucus carota
Daucus carota#Translingual

A vegetable with a nutritious, juicy, sweet root that is often orange in colour, Daucus carota, especially the subspecies sativus in the family Apiaceae.

(UK, slang, derogatory) Someone from a rural background.

(UK, slang) A police officer from somewhere within the British Isles, but specifically outside of Greater London.

(slang) A redhead; a ginger-haired person


drop

From Late Middle English droppe, Middle English drope (“small quantity of liquid; small or least amount of something; pendant jewel; dripping of a liquid; a shower; nasal flow, catarrh; speck, spot; blemish; disease causing spots on the skin”) [and other forms], from Old English dropa (“a drop”), from Proto-West Germanic *dropō (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Germanic *drupô (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to crumble, grind”).

nb...

dropan, droupe, (Northern England) droipe

afval

small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own round shape through surface tension

piisk

very small quantity of liquid, or of anything

piisk

that which hangs or resembles a liquid globule

pudotettu esine

(online gaming, video games) item dropped by a defeated enemy

langemine

decline in degree, quality, quantity, or rate

afgrond

As the prisoners prepared to leave, they had seen Dan and Steve standing together in the breezeway, ‘for all the world like two condemned prisoners on the drop’.

2003, Ian Jones, Ned Kelly: A Short Life, revised edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Hachette Australia, published 2010, →ISBN:

Crook: "I'll find the killers for you, I swear." / Cop: "So why didn't you?" / Crook: "I'm scared of 'em." / Cop: "More than the drop?" / Crook: "Aye. Maybe."

2015 November 25, Benjamin Ross, Barry Langford, “All the Lost Children” (26:40 from the start), in The Frankenstein Chronicles, season 1, episode 3:

(law enforcement) A trapdoor (“hinged platform”) on a gallows; a gallows itself.

[A]ll those present shared the all-important political connections required to get a ticket to the execution. News reporters, doctors, and members of the juries had prime spots right by the platform, so that they could see the drop and record the time of death.

2011, Elizabeth Dale, “Justice is Served”, in The Chicago Trunk Murder: Law and Justice at the Turn of the Century, DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, →ISBN, page 74:

An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).

(law enforcement, informal) Preceded by the: execution by hanging.

The distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level.

(law enforcement) The distance that a person drops when being executed by hanging.


DAC

en-noun

DAC (countable and uncountable, plural DACs)

deputy assistant commissioner
deputy assistant commissioner#English

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


CRT

CRT (countable and uncountable, plural CRTs)

crisis response team
crisis response team#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of crisis response team.


IO

IO (countable and uncountable, plural IOs)

(Singapore, law enforcement) Initialism of investigation officer.


gulag

Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Borrowed from Russian ГУЛА́Г (GULÁG), the acronym of Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й (Glávnoje upravlénije ispravítelʹno-trudovýx lageréj, “Chief Administration of Corrective-Labor Camps”), the government agency in charge of the Soviet Union’s network of forced labour camps, which was established in 1918 and formally abolished in 1960: see GULAG.

A prison camp, especially one used to hold political prisoners.


phisher

A person who engages in phishing attacks.


execution

execution (countable and uncountable, plural executions)

From Old French execution (c.1360), from Latin exsecutiō, an agent noun from exsequor (“to follow out”), from ex (“out”) + sequor (“follow”).

The mission's successful execution lifted the troops' morale.

Coordinate term: realization

uitvoering

act of executing or the state of being executed


executioner

/ˌɛksəˈkjuːʃənə/

He would probably have died by the hand of the executioner, if indeed the executioner had not been anticipated by the populace.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

Underpinning that power was a reign of terror the like of which Chechens had not seen since the days of Stalin. Even the Russian contraktniki, or freelance fighters, were not as feared as Mr Kadyrov's private army of kidnappers, torturers and executioners were.

2004 May 11, “Prisoners of the Caucasus”, in The Guardian:

An official person who carries out the capital punishment of a criminal.

therës

the person who carries out the execution

A hit man, especially being in some organization.


OCPD

Lahad Datu OCPD, ACP Hamzah Ahmad said both suspects, believed to be Malaysian nationals aged 46 and 47, were detained at 2pm after police received information from the public on the drug trafficking activities at a car parking area in the town centre.

2015 March 29, “Two men detained, drugs worth RM250k seized”, in New Straits Times:

The remand for nine individuals, including two officers-in-charge of police districts (OCPD) has been extended by five days […]

2017 May 22, “Remand for Melaka cops extended over protection money racket probe”, in Malay Mail:

Home minister Hamzah Zainudin said the OCPDs would act as ground commanders to coordinate the operation, which will be conducted jointly with other enforcement agencies.

2021 July 1, “OCPDs to lead nationwide SOP crackdown”, in Free Malaysia Today:

(Malaysia, law enforcement) Initialism of Officer in Charge of the Police District.


runner

From Middle English rennere, rynner, urnare, equivalent to run + -er. Cognate with Old Norse rennari (“runner; messenger”). Displaced earlier Middle English runel (“runner”), from Old English rynel (“runner”; also “messenger, courier”).

махови́к

mechanical part intended to guide or aid something else to move

In our prisons you might find a condemned man working as a runner, a trusty, which is about as far from segregation as you can get.

1959, Frederick S. Baldi, My Unwelcome Guests, page 25:

(US, dated) A trusty (prisoner granted special privileges).

A leaping food fish (Elagatis pinnulatis) of Florida and the West Indies; the skipjack, shoemaker, or yellowtail.


political prisoner

political prisoner (plural political prisoners)

Section 2 directs the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War to furnish to the judges of the circuit and district courts of the United States and of the District of Columbia, a list of the names of all persons, citizens of loyal States, held as State or political prisoners of the United States, in any for, arsenal, or other place […]

1864, Edward McPherson, The Political History of the United States of America, During the Great Rebellion, from November 6, 1860, to July 4, 1864:

The political prisoner, however, undergoes cross-examination, as do all other prisoners, at the hands of the Court on the threshold of the trial, before any evidence on the part of the prosecution or the defense has been adduced.

1920 December, The World Tomorrow, volume 3, page 377:

This is the first major study that examines the community of Palestinian political prisoners in the Israeli prison system.

2008, Esmail Nashif, Palestinian Political Prisoners: Identity and Community, page ii:

A person imprisoned for their political views or political activism.


apprehend

en-verb

apprehend (third-person singular simple present apprehends, present participle apprehending, simple past and past participle apprehended)

apprehends (present singular third-person)
apprehending (participle present)
apprehended (participle past)
apprehended (past)

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

From Late Middle English apprehenden (“to grasp, take hold of; to comprehend; to learn”), from Old French apprehender (modern French appréhender (“to apprehend; to catch; to dread”)), from Latin apprehendere, adprehendere, the present active infinitive of apprehendō, adprehendō (“to grab, grasp, seize, take; to apprehend, arrest; to comprehend, understand; to embrace, include; to take possession of, obtain, secure”), from ap-, ad- (prefix meaning ‘to’) + prehendō (“to grab, grasp, seize, snatch, take; to accost; to catch in the act, take by surprise; (figuratively, rare) of the mind: to apprehend, comprehend, grasp”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to hold, seize, take; to find”)).

der

Officers apprehended the suspect two streets away from the bank.

[…] Paul before his converſion entred into their Synagogues at Damaſcus, to apprehend Chriſtians, men and women, and to carry them bound to Jeruſalem, by Commiſſion from the High Prieſt.

1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of Power Ecclesiasticall”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 3rd part (Of a Christian Common-wealth), page 276:

[A] juſtice of the peace cannot iſſue a warrant to apprehend a felon upon bare ſuſpicion; no, not even till an indictment be actually found: and the contrary practice is by others held to be grounded rather upon connivance, than the expreſs rule of law; though now by long cuſtom eſtabliſhed.

1769, William Blackstone, “Of Arrests”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book IV (Of Public Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 287:

He soon returned to the Lowlands, and stayed there till he learned that a considerable body of troops had been sent to apprehend him.

1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 328:

(law enforcement) To seize or take (a person) by legal process; to arrest.

арышто́ўваць

to seize or take (a person) by legal process — see also arrest


triad

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Latin triad-, stem of trias (“three, triad”), from Ancient Greek τριάς (triás).
Sense 3 (“branch of a Chinese underground criminal society”) is due to the word being applied by the British authorities to underground society in Hong Kong based on the geometry of the Chinese character, derived from a name used by some of those societies, 三合會 /三合会 (sānhéhuì, “Three Harmonies Society”), referring to the union between heaven, earth, and humanity.

The point — and the symbolism — was that so long as the informer kept his mouth shut he was alive. Harry had seen the result of zjuk carried out by the Tapei Triad on a poor jerk they found in a back street of Tan-shui. They had used broad nail heads that didn’t make such big holes on their way in. When the paramedics came and pulled the brick off the dead man, the face came with it.

2012 [2011], Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett, Gjenferd [Phantom] (Fiction), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 99:

A branch of a Chinese underground criminal society, mostly based in Hong Kong.


yakuza

From Japanese やくざ (yakuza). See there for more details.

cartel

Latin American organized crime syndicate

يَاكُوزَا

member of a Japanese organized crime gang


misdemeanor

Coordinate term: felony

(law, criminology, historical in UK) A lesser criminal act in most common law legal systems, generally punished less severely than a felony.


felony

From Middle English felony, felonie, from Old French felonie (“evil, immoral deed”), from felon (“evildoer”). Ultimately of Proto-Germanic origin. More at felon.

Coordinate term: misdemeanor

Many experts have also expressed skepticism about the significance of this case and its legal underpinnings, which employed an unusual legal theory to seek a felony charge for what is more commonly a misdemeanor, and Mr. Trump will undoubtedly seek an appeal.

2024 May 30, The Editorial Board, “Donald Trump, Felon”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(law, criminology, US, historical in UK) A serious criminal offense, which, under United States federal law, is punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than one year or by the death penalty in the most serious offenses.


imprisonment

en-noun

imprisonment (countable and uncountable, plural imprisonments)

From Anglo-Norman emprisonement, from Old French emprisonnement. See imprison + -ment.

His sinews woxen weake and raw / Through long emprisonment and hard constraint.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 2:

Every confinement of the person is an imprisonment, whether it be in a common prison, or in a private house, or even by forcibly detaining one in the public streets.

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

Oh, by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, oppressions, imprisonments, tortures, poisonings, and under what reasons of state and politic subtilty, have these forenamed kings […] pulled the vengeance of God upon themselves […]

1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

A confinement in a place, especially a prison or a jail, especially as punishment for a crime.


off

en-adj

off (comparative more off, superlative most off)

more off (comparative)
most off (superlative)

(older Received Pronunciation, General American) -ɔːf

From Middle English of, from Old English of, af, æf (“from, off, away”), from Proto-West Germanic *ab, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“from”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo (“from, off, back”). Doublet of of.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots of, af (“off, away”), West Frisian af, ôf (“off, away”), Dutch af (“off, from”), German Low German of (“off, from”), German ab (“off, from”), Danish af (“of, off”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish av (“of, off”), Icelandic af (“of, off”), Gothic 𐌰𐍆 (af, “of, from”); and with Latin ab (“of, from, by”), Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “from”), and others.

inh

This milk is off!

Denoting something faulty, unsatisfactory, objectionable etc.


clavis

From Latin clāvis (“a key”). Doublet of clave and clef.

Iron clavis, the solid web-shaped at the edges to fit the wards in the lock, and having a pointed broach and a kite-formed looped haft.

1873, “Proceedings of the Association”, in Journal of the British Archaeological Association, volume 29, April 9th, page 202:


pogrom

Borrowed from Yiddish פּאָגראָם (pogrom), from Russian погро́м (pogróm).

A riot aimed at persecution or massacre of a particular ethnic or religious group, usually Jews.

pogrom

riot with the intent to massacre or terrorize a certain group, usually Jews


ghoul

Portuguese: ghoul

From Persian غول (ğul) from Arabic غُول (ḡūl). Compare French goule, of the same origin.

The other chamber had shown a pack of ghouls and witches over-running the world of our forefathers, but this one brought the horror right into our own daily life!.

From my laboratory in the Castle east
To the master bedroom, where the vampires feast
The ghouls all came from their humble abodes
To get a jolt from my electrodes
They did the Mash
They did the Monster Mash.

1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:

(mythology) A demon said to feed on corpses.

A person with an undue interest in death and corpses, or more generally in things that are revolting and repulsive.

(derogatory, slang) A person with a callous or uncaring attitude to human life and suffering, particularly when prioritizing economic concerns.


vice

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English vice, from Old French vice, from Latin vitium (“fault or blemish”). Displaced native Old English unþēaw.

(law enforcement, slang) Clipping of vice squad.


rapparee

from Irish rapaire, variant of ropaire (“cutpurse”).

And then he would relate stories of banshees, and robberies, and ghosts, and hair-breadth escapes, and 'rapparees,' and adventures in the wars of King James, which he heard told in his nonage by the old folk, long vanished, who remembered those troubles.

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

(Ireland, historical or archaic) A bandit or brigand.


perp

"We have the perp in custody," the policeman said.

Got himself fired for pulling a sword on an acknowledged perp. Slid it right through the fabric of the perp’s shirt, gliding the flat of the blade along the base of his neck, and pinned him to a warped and bubbled expanse of vinyl siding on the wall of the house that the perp was trying to break into.

1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 6:


posse

Coordinate term: vigilante

He […] no sooner set his nose within the room to which he was directed, than the constable and his posse sprung upon him, before he had the least intimation of his design, or any opportunity of acting in his own defence.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

Mathews then appointed Morton as a deputy sheriff and after a posse had been selected, they went in pursuit of the criminals. Within a few hours, the posse overtook the thieves.

1986, Donald R. Lavash, Sheriff William Brady, Tragic Hero of the Lincoln County War, Sunstone Press, →ISBN, page 77:

While Wyatt dismounted and aimed his shotgun at Brocius, the rest of his posse retreated.

2013, Andrew C. Isenberg, Wyatt Earp: A Vigilante Life, Hill and Wang, →ISBN, page 165:

(now historical, in later use chiefly US) A group of people summoned to help law enforcement.


libel

en-noun

libel (countable and uncountable, plural libels)

From Middle English libel, from Old French libelle, from Latin libellus (“petition”, literally “booklet”).

uder

(countable) Any defamatory writing; a lampoon; a satire.

These provisions of law being in force, the steamer Rio Grande, owned, as was alleged, by persons in Mexico, being in the port of Mobile, in the Southern District of Alabama, certain materialmen, on the 26th of November, 1867, filed separate libels against her in the district court for the said district.

1873, United States Supreme Court, The Rio Grande, 86 U.S. 178,179

(law, countable) A written declaration or statement by the plaintiff of their cause of action, and of the relief they seek.

a libel of forsaking [divorcement]

(countable) A brief writing of any kind, especially a declaration, bill, certificate, request, supplication, etc.


libel

en-verb

libel (third-person singular simple present libels, present participle (UK) libelling or (US) libeling, simple past and past participle (UK) libelled or (US) libeled)

libels (present singular third-person)
libelling (UK participle present)
libeling (US participle present)
libelled (UK participle past)
libelled (UK past)
libeled (US participle past)
libeled (US past)

He libelled her when he published that.

But vvhat ſo pure, vvhich envious tongues vvill ſpare? / Some vvicked vvits have libell'd all the fair.

1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 203:

To defame (someone), especially in a manner that meets the legal definition of libel.

To proceed against (goods, a ship, etc.) by filing a legal claim.


turnkey

He saw the same Turnkey unfetter a man / With but little expedition, / Which put him in mind of the long debate / On the Slave-trade abolition.

1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 86:

[…]they passed through an open door into a lobby, from which a heavy gate, opposite to that by which they had entered, and which was guarded by a stout turnkey with the key in his hand, led at once into the interior of the prison.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

'Certainly not,' said the turnkey; and the first corroborated his statement.

1883, Thomas Hardy, The Three Strangers:

(archaic) A warder or jailer/gaoler; keeper of the keys in a prison.


mechanic

From Middle English mekanyk (“mechanical”), from Old French mecanique, from Latin mechanicus (“of or belonging to machines or mechanics, inventive”), from Ancient Greek μηχανικός (mēkhanikós, “pertaining to machines or contrivance, mechanic, ingenious, inventive”), from μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “a machine, contrivance”); see machine.

der

But, for the unquiet heart and brain,
A use in measured language lies;
The sad mechanic exercise,
Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto V:

(archaic) mechanical; precise but lifeless, as if performed by machine


murderer

From Middle English murderere; equivalent to murder + -er.

It was two o'clock when she came to herself and called for the police. The murderer was gone long ago; but there lay his victim in the middle of the lane, incredibly mangled. The stick with which the deed had been done, although it was of some rare and very tough and heavy wood, had broken in the middle under the stress of this insensate cruelty

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

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

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


godfather

From Middle English godfader, from Old English godfæder (“godfather”), equivalent to god- + father. Cognate with Old Saxon godfadar (“godfather”), Middle Dutch godvader (“godfather”), Danish gudfader, gudfar (“godfather”), Swedish gudfader, gudfar (“godfather”), Icelandic guðfaðir (“godfather”).


theft

en-noun

theft (countable and uncountable, plural thefts)

From Middle English theft, thefte, þefte, þefþe, þiefþe, Old English þīefþ, from Proto-West Germanic *þiubiþu, from Proto-Germanic *þiubiþō, from *þeubaz (“thief”), equivalent to thief + -th or thieve + -th. Cognate with Old Frisian thiuvethe, thiufthe (“theft”), dialectal Dutch diefte (“theft”), obsolete German Diebde (“theft”), Icelandic þýfð (“theft”).

resource theft

Bike theft is on the rise.

A suspect was arrested for the theft of a gold necklace.

If you steal a candy bar, you are guilty of theft, regardless of the value.

2007 July 5, Charles Hugh Smith, When Lies Become Normal, Is Truth Dead or Just in Hiding?:


calaboose

Tok Pisin: kalabus

From Cajun French calabousse, from Spanish calabozo. Doublet of calabozo.

The slaughter-house is gone from the mouth of Bear Creek and so is the small jail (or 'calaboose') which once stood in its neighborhood. A citizen asked, 'Do you remember when Jimmy Finn, the town drunkard, was burned to death in the calaboose?'

1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 56, in Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC:

Bogator: (Still unbelieving) And you turned the calaboose over?

1937, Langston Hughes, When the Jack Hollers; or Careless Love: A Negro-Folk Comedy in Three Acts, in The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume 5. The Plays to 1942: Mulatto to The Sun Do Move, Leslie Catherine Sanders (ed.), Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002, pp. 392-3, Bogator: Aunt Billie, I thought you were in jail! Aunt Billie: I was, but I got tired of that little ole privy-sized jail, so I jest turned it over and come out! […]

[…] he had but recently come out of Calaboose, where he had been serving a term for debt […]

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 150:

Thereupon the Administrator in Rabaul almost outdid himself in defending corporal punishment […] and demanded drastic alternative punishments, for the "calaboose" (Kalabus: Tok Pisin for prison) "is the native's paradise."

1995, Hermann Hiery, chapter 2, in The Neglected War: The German South Pacific and the Influence of World War I, University of Hawaii Press, page 82:

The first calaboose or city jail used by the officers of the law was located on Cumberland Street, just below the vacant lot adjacent to the Star Steam Laundry.

2001, Sylvia D. Lynch, To Protect and Serve: History of the Knoxville Police Department, 1849-2001, Turner Publishing Company, page 79:

In his opinion it would seem that certain usages of colloquial English in Australia and New Zealand in the early 1800s could have been selected as conventional usages in the developing contact jargon. Many of these usages are still part of colloquial speech today in both of these countries, for example: fella for 'one', […] no good, orright, calaboose, […]

2004, Darrell T. Tryon, Jean-Michel Charpentier, chapter 5, in Pacific Pidgins and Creoles: Origins, Growth and Development, Mouton de Gruyter, page 117:

(US, Australia, dialect) A prison or jail/gaol.


pork

pork (countable and uncountable, plural porks)

→ Japanese: ポーク (pōku)

From Middle English pork, porc, via Anglo-Norman, from Old French porc (“swine, hog, pig; pork”), from Latin porcus (“domestic hog, pig”).
Cognate with Old English fearh (“piglet”). Doublet of farrow. Compare also other West Germanic words for pigs: Ferkel, Ferke, and varken.
Used in English since the 14th century, and as a term of abuse since the 17th century.
US politics sense is related to pork barrel.
The verb is from the black American form of poke.

der

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

Meronym: porky (“one member of law enforcement, policeman”)

criminal prosecution
criminal prosecution

(MLE, slang, collective) law enforcement, those who side with criminal prosecution


yoink

en-verb

yoink (third-person singular simple present yoinks, present participle yoinking, simple past and past participle yoinked)

yoinks (present singular third-person)
yoinking (participle present)
yoinked (participle past)
yoinked (past)

Carl Solomon yoinking around so frenziedly on a pogo stick that one night he put the end of it right through the floor into the restaurant below -- and all their girls, and their friends' girls, and their friends' friends, and even nameless others who may have just heard the hubbub and walkin in the door.

2013, Phil Ford, Dig: Sound and Music in Hip Culture, →ISBN, page 62:


yoink

Yessir, we need you Yoinks. You're all we have, you are.

1969, Bernard Augustine De Voto, Saturday Review - Volume 52, page 49:

1999 March 28, Robert Mulroy, “You are all a bunch of yoinks who insult Budda!”, in alt.buddha.short.fat.guy (Usenet):

The fact that these mentating yoinks don't know what it it, or worse, refuse to even acknowledge its existence pegs their state of awareness.

1999 November 11, Don James, “WHITE LIGHT”, in alt.zen (Usenet):

“What a bunch of yoinks we are, indeed,” Garvin said.

2012, Chris Bunch, Storm Force: Book Three of the Last Legion Series, →ISBN:

(slang) An ordinary person with nothing to recommend them.


yoink

Coined by writer George Meyer for the TV show The Simpsons; perhaps from yank, or imitative of the sound effect (a quick upward slide on a violin) that accompanies something being snatched in classic comedies.

Marge: But you look better, you don't sweat when you eat any more, and look – [holds up a wad of cash] You've saved more than a hundred dollars. I found it in your pants.
Homer: [snatches money] Yoink!

1993, “Duffless”, episode of the Simpsons [television]

Yoink! He snatched Granny Glee's frilly pink hat with his little feet.

2012, John Sazaklis, Candy Store Caper, →ISBN, page 24:

The way I've always done this stunt is to grab my partner and jump us over together. It's absolute hell on my knees. I lean toward Brando and raise my eyebrows. “Yoink.” “Definite yoink,” he replies, equally inspired.

2014, G. T. Almasi, Hammer of Angels: A Novel of Shadowstorm, →ISBN:

YOINK! Coach Pittman snatched the puck out of midair.

2015, Marty McKnight, Jim Nasium Is a Hockey Hazard, →ISBN, page 42:

2021 (November 13) "Olivia & Yunan" (Amphibia s3e7b) Yunan grabbing a crossbow
Ooh, ominous. After you, milady. Yoink!

(colloquial) Onomatopoeic, accompanying or describing a yank, swipe, or snatch.


yoink

I'm sure that there is pinching, punching, eye gouging, yoinking, hair pulling and who knows what else underneath where eyes can't follow, but he comes out and hands the referee the ball and hits the line again.

2010, Sandy Burgess Livermore, Stealing Home, →ISBN:

The first time he yoinked at my arm all three of us–me, doctor and bed –flew across the room.

2012, Geordan Murphy, The Outsider, →ISBN:

That was the stress that yoinked the whole support gantry down— like trying to stop a medium-sized car with one pull.”

2013, Eric Flint, Ryk E. Spoor, Portal, →ISBN:

"Hey!" some AV kid said when I snuck up behind him and yoinked a microphone from his cart.

2017, Teddy Steinkellner, Two Roads from Here, →ISBN, page 109:

Jonas thinks he's such a free fucking spirit for sporting that Revolutionary War–esque overcoat he yoinked from that thrift shop in Philly.

2010, Brenna Ehrlich, Andrea Bartz, Stuff Hipsters Hate:

On my first four turns, I yoinked Australia. Playing Risk with these girls was so fun because in my whole life I've never seen two people happier.

2012, Maria Semple, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, →ISBN:

(colloquial) To take or win (something that others want).


frame

frame (third-person singular simple present frames, present participle framing, simple past and past participle framed)

frames (present singular third-person)
framing (participle present)
framed (participle past)
framed (past)

→ Dutch: frame

→ German: framen

From Middle English framen, fremen, fremmen (“to construct, build, strengthen, refresh, perform, execute, profit, avail”), from Old English framian, fremian, fremman (“to profit, avail, advance”), from Proto-West Germanic *frammjan, from Proto-Germanic *framjaną (“to further, promote, perform”), from Proto-Indo-European *promo- (“front, forward”).
Cognate with Low German framen (“to commit, effect”), Danish fremme (“to promote, further, perform”), Swedish främja (“to promote, encourage, foster”), Icelandic fremja (“to commit”). More at from.

cog

The gun had obviously been placed in her car in an effort to frame her.

(transitive, criminology) Conspire to falsely incriminate an innocent person.


electrocutioner

/ɪˌlɛktɹəˈkjuʃənɚ/

/ɪˌlɛktɹəˈkjuːʃənə/

Blend of electrocution + executioner, or electrocution + -er

U.S. Supreme Court: STATE OF LA. EX REL. FRANCIS v. RESWEBER, 329 U.S. 459 (1947) 329 U.S. 459 STATE OF LOUISIANA ex rel. FRANCIS v. RESWEBER, sheriff, et al. No. 142.
'Then the electrocutioner turned on the switch and when he did Willie Francis' lips puffed out and he groaned and jumped so that the chair came off the floor. Apparently the switch was turned on twice and then the condemned man yelled: 'Take it off. Let me breath." Affidavit of official witness Harold Resweber, dated May 23, 1946.

Smiling as I throw the switch that takes away their breath
I see life as an interruption to the tune of death

1978, The Residents (lyrics and music), “The Electrocutioner”, in Duck Stab/Buster & Glen, performed by Monica Ganas and Snakefinger:

an executioner who carries out an execution by means of electricity.


scrap

en-noun

scrap (countable and uncountable, plural scraps)

From Middle English scrappe, from Old Norse skrap, from skrapa (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Germanic *skrapōną, *skrepaną (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *skreb-, *skrep- (“to engrave”).

(UK, in the plural) A piece of deep-fried batter left over from frying fish, sometimes sold with chips.

(ethnic slur, offensive) A Hispanic criminal, especially a Mexican or one affiliated with the Sureno gang.


scrap

en-verb

scrap (third-person singular simple present scraps, present participle scrapping, simple past and past participle scrapped)

scraps (present singular third-person)
scrapping (participle present)
scrapped (participle past)
scrapped (past)

(intransitive) To scrapbook; to create scrapbooks.


population

Borrowed from Late Latin populatio (“a people, multitude”), as if a noun of action from Classical Latin populus. Doublet of poblacion.

bor+

invånarantal (often expressed as "har X invånare" instead)

I would like to say something about the place I am doing time at. When I was placed in population, I met another woman and we immediately became good friends.

1985 April 6, Jackie Beattie, “More Power To Us All”, in Gay Community News, page 4:


solve

From Middle English solven, from Latin solvō.

The solve is this, that thou dost common grow.

1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 69”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

KEVIN: I decided a long time ago that just because I love Raymond, doesn't mean I have to love the people he works with. Good solve, Detective.

2014 February 4, The Party, Gil Ozeri and Gabe Liedman (writers), Michael Engler (director), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season 1, episode 16

“Hey, Mr. Quilt Bandit.”
 Ian smiled. “Nice solve, Nancy Drew.”

2017, Elodia Strain, The Dating Experiment, →ISBN:

(now rare, chiefly law enforcement) A solution; an explanation.


charge

en-verb

charge (third-person singular simple present charges, present participle charging, simple past and past participle charged)

charges (present singular third-person)
charging (participle present)
charged (participle past)
charged (past)

desc

→ Cantonese: 叉廚 /叉厨 (caa¹ cyu⁴), 叉 (caa¹)

→ Kashubian: czardżowac (United States)

→ Malay: caj, cas

→ Swahili: chaji

From Middle English chargen, from Old French chargier, from Late Latin carricō (“to load”), from Latin carrus (“a car, wagon”); see car. Doublet of cargo.

yükləmək

to place a burden upon, to assign a duty

yükləmək

to load equipment with material required for its use

I'm charging you with assault and battery.

(transitive, criminal law, law enforcement) To formally accuse (a person) of a crime.

اِتَّهَمَ

criminal law, law enforcement: to formally accuse of a crime


prison

en-noun

prison (countable and uncountable, plural prisons)

From Middle English prisoun, prison, a borrowing from Old French prison, from Latin prehensiōnem, accusative singular of prehensiō, from the verb prehendō. Doublet of prehension.

The cold stone walls of the prison had stood for over a century.

A place or institution where people are held against their will, in the US especially for long-term confinement, as of those convicted of serious crimes or otherwise considered undesirable by the government.

абахҭа

place of long-term confinement for those convicted of serious crimes

Prison was a harrowing experience for him.


jail

en-verb

jail (third-person singular simple present jails, present participle jailing, simple past and past participle jailed)

jails (present singular third-person)
jailing (participle present)
jailed (participle past)
jailed (past)

From Middle English gayole, gaylle, gaille, gayle, gaile, via Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, from Medieval Latin gabiola, for Late Latin caveola, a diminutive of Latin cavea (“cavity, coop, cage”). Doublet of caveola and related to cage. More at cajole.

It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.

2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

A 22-year-old man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years for fatally stabbing 22-year-old Tashan Daniel in an unprovoked attack at Hillingdon Underground station on September 24 2019.

2020 September 9, “Network News: Man jailed for Hillingdon murder”, in Rail, page 25:


rap

From RAP (“record of arrest and prosecution”).

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


joint

The noun is from Middle English joynt (attested since the late 13th century), from Old French joint (“joint of the body”) (attested since the 12th century). The adjective (attested since the 15th century) is from Old French jointiz. Both Old French words are from Latin iūnctus, the past participle of iungō. See also join, jugular.
The meaning of "building, establishment", especially in connection with shady activities, appeared in Anglo-Irish by 1821 and entered general American English slang by 1877, especially in the sense of "opium den". The sense "marijuana cigarette" is attested since 1935. The development to meaning "any thing" also happened to the Scots and Memphian form junt and the Mid-Atlantic/Philadelphian form jawn.

verbinding

point of a rigid joint, means of joining in carpentry

I'm just trying to stay out of the joint.

en:place of business or human activity
en:prison, jail, or lockup

(chiefly US slang, may be somewhat derogatory) A place of business, particularly in the food service or hospitality industries; sometimes extended to any place that is a focus of human connection or activity (e.g., schools, hangouts, party spots).

(slang, with the definite article) Prison, jail, or lockup.


blag

The origin of the noun is unknown. The verb is derived from the noun.

'What's he do, Micky?' / 'Armed blags is what I hear – s'posed to be one or two nice little tucks down to him that he didn't go for. He keeps well active. Someone told me he's putting one together now.[…]'

1977, G[ordon] F[rank] Newman, chapter 4, in Law and Order, St. Albans, Hertfordshire: Granada Publishing, published 1983, →ISBN, page 40:

Through Lenny I had met a character whom I shall call Billy. He was part of a blag team famous for a series of large-scale wage snatches.

1997, Stephen Smith, “Helter Skelter Years”, in Addict: An Incredible True Story with a Fairytale End, [United Kingdom]: Westworld International, →ISBN:

They're turning over any business that couldn't go running back to the Other People, sex shops and massage parlours, doing blags long after they went outta fashion, doing loads of drugs and not giving a fuck about keeping a low profile.

2000 April, J. J. Connolly, “April Fool’s Day 1997: Welcome to the Layer Cake”, in Layer Cake, London: Duck Editions, Duckworth Literary Entertainments, published July 2001, →ISBN, page 6:

Darlin' – I know your old man's keen for you to learn the ropes an' all that, but let's not forget who's running this blag, shall we?

2005, Echo Freer, chapter 1, in Diamond Geezers, London: Hodder Children’s Books, Hodder Headline, →ISBN, page 2:

(British, criminal slang) An armed robbery or robbery involving violence; also, theft.


blag

blag (third-person singular simple present blags, present participle blagging, simple past and past participle blagged)

blags (present singular third-person)
blagging (participle present)
blagged (participle past)
blagged (past)

(transitive, British, criminal slang) To obtain (something) through armed robbery or robbery involving violence, or theft; to rob; to steal.


shield

From Middle English scheld, shelde, from Old English scield (“shield”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeldu, from Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“cut, split”). Cognate with West Frisian skyld, Dutch schild (“shield”), German Schild (“shield”), Danish skjold (“shield”), Icelandic skjöldur (“shield”) and Faroese skjøldur (“shield”).
Compare Latin scūtum (“shield”), Irish sciath (“shield”), Latgalian škīda (“shield”), Lithuanian skydas (“shield”), Russian щит (ščit, “shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, protect”), *skey- (“to cut, split”).

noncog

The chief put something in his hand and Bosch looked down to see the gold detective's shield.

2005, Michael Connelly, The closers: a novel:

A shape like that of a shield; usually, an inverted triangle with sides that curve inward to form a pointed bottom, commonly used for police identifications and company logos.

(colloquial, law enforcement) A police badge.


truncheon

/ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/

/ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/

From Middle English tronchoun, from Old French tronchon (“thick stick”), from Late Latin *troncionem, from Latin truncus.

Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword / The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe / Become them with one half so good a grace / As mercy does.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 60:

A baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer.

полицейска палка

a baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer

Therewith asunder in the midst it brast, / And in his hand nought but the troncheon left[…].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(obsolete) A fragment or piece broken off from something, especially a broken-off piece of a spear or lance.

Truncheons of seven or eight feet long, thrust two feet into the earth […] when once rooted, may be cut at six inches above ground

1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

(obsolete) A stout stem, as of a tree, with the branches lopped off, to produce rapid growth.


blackout

en-noun

blackout (countable and uncountable, plural blackouts)

→ French: blackout

→ German: Blackout

→ Portuguese: blecaute, blackout

(slang, criminology, rare) A mass murder committed, usually in an urban area, to eliminate potential witnesses of a previous crime.


warez

en-verb

warez (third-person singular simple present warezes, present participle warezing, simple past and past participle warezed)

warezes (present singular third-person)
warezing (participle present)
warezed (participle past)
warezed (past)

The leetspeak form of wares, as a contraction of software.

Many of these keys are, obviously, being used by people who've warezed XP, but there's also a reasonably large number of software professionals and refuseniks who have used them even though they have a legitimately bought version of XP.

2002 June 7, John Lettice, “MS turns up heat on warezed WinXP copies”, in The Register:

Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player [title]

2004 November 12, Timothy Lord, “Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player”, in Slashdot:

(Internet slang, leetspeak, dated) To obtain a copy of (software or other works of authorship) illegally.


lagging

en-noun

lagging (usually uncountable, plural laggings)

"Whether you'll get a nine or a lagging depends on the answer you give me, Mrs. Inglethorne."

1926, Edgar Wallace, The Square Emerald:

(slang, countable) A prison sentence, originally one of at least three years.


prior

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin prior (“earlier, former, previous, prior; in front; (figurative) better, superior”), from Proto-Italic *priōs (“earlier, previous”, literally “more before”), ultimately from *pri (“before”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pró (“leading to, toward”) and its etymon *per- (“before, in front; first”)) + *-jōs (suffix forming comparative adjectives). Doublet of before, fore, and former.
The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.

der

априорное распределение вероятностей

And a little later we get the routine report on his prints from Washington, and he's got a prior back in Indiana, attempted hold-up six years ago.

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published 1966, →OCLC, page 47:

(Canada, US, law enforcement, chiefly in the plural) A previous arrest or criminal conviction on someone's criminal record.

досие

previous arrest or criminal conviction on someone’s criminal record


wild

en-verb

wild (third-person singular simple present wilds, present participle wilding, simple past and past participle wilded)

wilds (present singular third-person)
wilding (participle present)
wilded (participle past)
wilded (past)

From Middle English wild, wilde, from Old English wilde, from Proto-West Germanic *wilþī, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“hair, wool, grass, ear (of corn), forest”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian wyld, Dutch wild, German wild, Danish vild, Swedish vild, Norwegian vill, Icelandic villtur.

der

...Chief of Detectives Robert Colangelo, who said the attacks appeared unrelated to money, race, drugs, or alcohol, said that some of the 20 youths brought in for questioning has told investigators that the crime spree was the product of a pastime called "wilding".
"It's not a term that we in the police had heard before," the chief said, noting that the police were unaware of any similar incident in the park recently. "They just said, 'We were going wilding.' In my mind at this point, it implies that they were going to raise hell."...

1989 April 22, David E. Pitt, “Jogger's Attackers Terrorized at Least 9 in 2 Hours”, in New York Times, page 1:

Now is they wildin with us / And getting rowdy with us.

1999, Busta Rhymes (Trevor Taheim Smith, Jr.), Iz They Wildin Wit Us? (song)

(intransitive, slang) To commit random acts of assault, robbery, and rape in an urban setting, especially as a gang.


shoplift

en-verb

shoplift (third-person singular simple present shoplifts, present participle shoplifting, simple past and past participle shoplifted)

shoplifts (present singular third-person)
shoplifting (participle present)
shoplifted (participle past)
shoplifted (past)

She taught Maddy to sing in Portuguese, to shoplift mascara, to play a drinking game called Spoons

2004 May 17, Andrew Sean Greer, The New Yorker:

(transitive) To steal something from a shop or store during business hours, usually by means of hiding merchandise.


shop steal

shop steal (third-person singular simple present shop steals, present participle shop stealing, simple past shop stole, past participle shop stolen)

shop steals (present singular third-person)
shop stealing (participle present)
shop stole (past)
shop stolen (participle past)

If you detect a person shop stealing, report it to the police.

For example, shop stealing cases of the kind already described are regularly dealt with at the scene and, afterwards, at a police station without any involvement of parents or guardians.

1983, John A. Seymour, Juvenile Justice in South Australia, page 15:

I have also in the past had court orders taken out on our known shop stealing customers to prevent them from entering my store.

2001 April 25, Doggy, “Bag Search Refusal”, in aus.legal^([https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/aus.legal/5DP9odlSr10[1-25]]) (Usenet):


collusion

en-noun

collusion (countable and uncountable, plural collusions)

Dated from the 14th century C.E. as Middle English collusioun, collusion; from Old French collusion, from Latin collusio (“act of colluding”).

Such tunges unhappy hath made great diviſion
In realmes, in cities, by ſuche fals abuſion;
Of fals fickil tunges ſuche cloked colluſion

c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.

Hath brought nobil princes to extreme confuſion.

The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west, employed by a military trained by westerners.

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

So why is Japan going ahead with the Olympics, against the public’s objections, while the pandemic is still a major public health concern? The answer is familiar: collusion among the elites.

2021 March 25, Koichi Nakano, “The Olympics Are On! But Why?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Once derided as a nationalist conspiracy theory, collusion is by now an undeniable fact. The scale, however, remains unknown.

2023 August 30, Megan K. Stack, Rob Stothard, “He Was Shot 14 Times at the Dinner Table. His Children Want to Know if Britain Ordered the Hit.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A private agreement for a fraudulent or illegal purpose; conspiracy.


twoccer

The police caught the twoccer breaking into the car.

Not all modes of reading (and not all readers) can be described in its terms, but just as those who joyride in twocced cars often know and care more about their chosen vehicles than do the owners, so it is the more astute and committed fans of reading who are most likely to be twoccers.

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

Joyriding was prominent in the media in the 1980s. Twoccers joined muggers in the panoply of folk devils. Newspapers vied with each other to report the youngest, the most daring and despicable, and the most prolific young offenders.

2024, Barry Godfrey, Alexandra Godfrey, “Hoodies”, in The Criminal Classes: Who Does Society Fear and Why?, Pen and Sword, →ISBN, page 165:

(British) A person who engages in twoccing; a car thief.


TWOC

TWOC (countable and uncountable, plural TWOCs)

From section 12 of the United Kingdom's Theft Act 1968, which states 'a person shall be guilty of an offence if, without having the consent of the owner or other lawful authority, he takes any conveyance for his own or another’s use or, knowing that any conveyance has been taken without such authority, drives it or allows himself to be carried in or on it'.

[…] women making arrests for aggravated burglary represent 22 per cent of the total and for aggravated TWOCs, 23 per cent […]

2002, Louise Westmarland, Gender and Policing, Routledge, →ISBN:

[…] the reported victimisation rate for TWOC and attempted TWOC (six out of 28 available vehicles victimised, and […])

2010, Anthony Bottoms, Julian Roberts, Hearing the Victim: Adversarial Justice, Crime Victims and the State, Routledge, →ISBN, page 121:

(British, law enforcement) The crime of taking a car without the consent of the owner.

未獲授權而取用運輸工具 /未获授权而取用运输工具

the crime of taking without the consent of the owner

mei6 wok6 sau6 kyun4 ji4 ceoi2 jung6 wan6 syu1 gung1 geoi6


rozzer

Late 19th century UK. Etymology unknown. Possibly a play on the given name of Sir Robert Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police Service. Compare peeler, bobby.

unk

Etymology unknown

"Another wrong un," says the carman. "Hi, Mr. Graham!"—and up walks a rozzer and buckles me tight.

If the rozzers was to see him in bona clobber they'd take him for a gun.

1893, P. H. Emerson, Signor Lippo, Burnt-Cork Artiste:

‘I was never frightened of any job yet,’ he said, ‘and I'd do this job to-night if the house was full of rozzers,’ Hill pretended that he wasn't particular whether the thing came off or not that night, but all the while he kept egging Fred on to do it.

1916, Arthur J. Rees, John R. Watson, The Hampstead Mystery:

Jed Mercurio’s corrupt cop hit remains one of the best shows on TV, but surely every rozzer in the Midlands knows who Kate Fleming is by now?

2017 March 25, Errigo Angie, “Dodgy detectives, Twitter trolls and whistleblowers: Line of Duty is back”, in The Guardian, TV & Radio blog:

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


bolo

(US law enforcement) A request for law enforcement officers to be on the lookout for a suspect.


dibble

en-noun

dibble (countable and uncountable, plural dibbles)

Hanna-Barbera
New York Police Department
Top Cat

From the character of Officer Charlie Dibble, a New York Police Department officer, in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Top Cat (first broadcast in the US in 1961, and in the UK in 1962 under the title Boss Cat).

Remember this story about police hunting a metal detector enthusiast suspected of digging 20 holes in a school playing field in Cornwall? It’s taken a rather unusual twist. Pop superstar Robbie Williams appears to have ’fessed up to the crime. The former Take That star, who is a keen metal detecting enthusiast, retweeted the West Briton newspaper’s version of the story, telling ‘Dibble’ – a Mancunian slang term for the police which comes from the character Officer Dibble in the cartoon Top Cat – to ‘do one’, vowing the police will never catch him alive.

2016 May 12, “maxc73”, “Robbie Williams ‘confesses’ to digging holes in school’s playing field”, in The Herald, Plymouth, Devon, archived from the original on 2017-03-16:

(slang, British, originally Manchester, countable) A police officer, especially one serving with Greater Manchester Police.


jigger

A slang term of unknown origin, originally meaning prison. Oxford English Dictionary suggests that its origin might be the same as Etymology 1, above.

According to a disciplinary notice, a correctional officer saw a "jigger string" coming from cell H-2 to Harper's cell. A jigger string is used to move objects between cells.

1990, “Supreme Court of Iowa”, in Court Listener, Harper v. State, 463 N.W.2d 418 (Iowa 1990):


mew

From Middle English mewe, mue, mwe, from Anglo-Norman mue, muwe, and Middle French mue (“shedding feathers; cage for moulting birds; prison”), from muer (“to moult”).

der

(obsolete) A prison, or other place of confinement.


pilfer

en-verb

pilfer (third-person singular simple present pilfers, present participle pilfering, simple past and past participle pilfered)

pilfers (present singular third-person)
pilfering (participle present)
pilfered (participle past)
pilfered (past)

From earlier pilfre, from Middle English pilfre (“booty”), from Old French pelfre (“plunder, booty, spoils”), of unknown origin. Compare pelf.

der

(transitive, intransitive) To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practise petty theft.


punter

He had stolen 'trannies' (transistor radios) and hub caps from cars outside the main hotels in Glasgow, turning the collection into money through dealing with a 'punter' at Charing Cross.

2013, James Patrick, A Glasgow Gang Observed:

(Scotland) A person who trades with a gang but is not a gang member.


quod

en-noun

quod (countable and uncountable, plural quods)

Abbreviation of quadrangle; originally (17th century) referring to the quadrangles of Newgate Prison, London.

c. 1894, Acquaintance of Norman Lindsay, quoted in 2005, James Cockington, Banned: Tales From the Bizarre History of Australian Obscenity, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, paperback →ISBN, page 7,
I don′t suppose you'll get more than a couple of months′ quod for them.

(uncountable, Australia, slang) Confinement in a prison.


swag

swag (countable and uncountable, plural swags)

The swag, is a term used in speaking of any booty you have lately obtained, be it of what kind it may, except money; as where did you lumber the swag? that is, where did you deposit the stolen property? To carry the swag is to be the bearer of the stolen goods to a place of safety.

1819, James Hardy Vaux, Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux, volume 1, page 216:

“It′s all arranged about bringing off the swag, is it?” asked the Jew. Sikes nodded.

1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “Chapter 19”, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘[…] They tell me there was a recognized swag market down here.’

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

He was on his way to call on other dealers to check out their swag and to see if he could trade away some of his leftover odds and ends.

1971 November 22, Frank E. Emerson, “They Can Get It For You BETTER Than Wholesale”, in New York Magazine, page 38:

(uncountable, thieves' cant) Stolen goods; the booty of a burglar or thief; boodle.


bribery

The making of illegal payment, or bribes, to persons in official positions as a means of influencing their decisions.

omkopery

making of illegal payment to persons in official positions as a means of influencing their decisions


caper

His caper had failed to find a comic resolution. Instead, there had been a genre switch, and the madcap adventure had turned serious. Or had this bleakness underlain the caper from the start?

2022, Jennifer Egan, “i, the Protagonist”, in The Candy House:

(figuratively) A crime, especially an elaborate heist, or a narrative about such a crime.


defamation

defamation (countable and uncountable, plural defamations)

/ˌdɛfəˈmeɪʃən/

From Old French diffamacion (French diffamation), from Latin diffāmātiō.

In a closed trial on December 24, 2004, the People’s Court of Jinshui District in the city of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, convicted Zhang Ruquan, along with his associate Zhang Zhengyao, in a public prosecution on charges of defamation that “seriously undermined social order or the state interest.” The two were sentenced to three years in prison for defaming former Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

2005, “Journalists Imprisoned in 2004”, in Bill Sweeney, editor, Attacks on the Press in 2004, →ISBN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 251, column 2:

An hour later, when the Fox board approved the wire payment for $787.5 million — one of the largest known defamation settlements in history — Fox acknowledged what we needed it to acknowledge: spreading false claims comes with a huge price tag.

2023 April 21, John Poulos, “Dominion’s C.E.O.: Why We Settled the Lawsuit Against Fox News”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The act of injuring another person's reputation by any slanderous communication, written or oral; the wrong of maliciously injuring the good name of another.

shpifje

act of injuring another's reputation by any slanderous communication


flake

From Middle English flake (“a flake of snow”), from Old English flacca and/or Old Norse flak (“loose or torn piece”) (compare Old Norse flakna (“to flake or chip”)), from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”). Cognate with Norwegian flak (“slice, sliver”, literally “piece torn off”), Swedish flak (“a thin slice”), Danish flage (“flake”), German Flocke (“flake”), Dutch vlak (“smooth surface, plain”) and vlok (“flake”), as well as with Latin plaga (“flat surface, district, region”) and Welsh llech (“slate, tablet”). Doublet of plage.

cog

When police decided to score gamblers, they would most often flake people with gambling slips, then demand $25 or $50 for not arresting them. Other times, they would simply threaten a flake and demand money.

1973, Knapp Commission, New York, The Knapp Commission Report on Police Corruption, page 83:

(US, law enforcement, slang) A corrupt arrest, e.g. to extort money for release or merely to fulfil a quota.


flake

en-verb

flake (third-person singular simple present flakes, present participle flaking, simple past and past participle flaked)

flakes (present singular third-person)
flaking (participle present)
flaked (participle past)
flaked (past)

(US, law enforcement, slang) To plant evidence to facilitate a corrupt arrest.


forgery

en-noun

forgery (countable and uncountable, plural forgeries)

/ˈfɔː.dʒəɹ.ɪ/

/ˈfɔːɹ.d͡ʒəɹ.ɪ/

Recorded since 1574; from the verb to forge, from Middle English forgen, via Anglo-Norman forger, from Old French forgier, from Latin fabricari (“to frame, construct, fabricate”), itself from fabrica (“workshop; construction”), from faber (“workman, smith”).

der

the forgery of a bond

Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.

1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

The act of forging, fabricating, or producing falsely; especially the crime of fraudulently making or altering a writing or signature purporting to be made by another, the false making or material alteration of or addition to a written instrument for the purpose of deceit and fraud.

vervalsing

the act of forging, fabricating or producing falsely


gang

→ Cebuano: gang

→ Danish: gæng

→ Dutch: gang

→ Hindi: गैंग (gaiṅg)

→ Japanese: ギャング (gyangu)

→ Malay: geng

→ Norman: dgaîngue

→ Norwegian:

Norwegian Bokmål: gjeng

Norwegian Nynorsk: gjeng

→ Portuguese: gangue

→ Spanish: gang

→ Swedish: gäng

→ Finnish: jengi

→ Tagalog: gang

→ Thai: แก๊ง (gɛ́ng)

From Middle English gang, from Old English gang (“a journey; way; passage”), from Proto-West Germanic *gang, from Proto-Germanic *gangaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰongʰ-o-s, from *ǵʰengʰ- (“to step; stride”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gong, Dutch gang, German Gang, Norwegian gang, Swedish gång, Icelandic gangur, Vedic Sanskrit जंहस् (jáṃhas).


incarceration

en-noun

incarceration (countable and uncountable, plural incarcerations)

/ɪŋˌkɑː(ɹ)səˈɹeɪʃən/

A constriction of the hernial sac, rendering it irreducible, but not great enough to cause strangulation.


jailer

Inherited from Middle English gayoler, gayler, jayler, from Old French jaiolier, gaiolier, from jaiole. By surface analysis, jail + -er.

Sometimes some of the ejected ministers preached to them privately, and now and then the jailer allowed Mr. H. to go out in the night to preach to them, and administer the Lord's Supper.

1775, Samuel Palmer, The Nonconformist's Memorial:

But the next morning came, and my coffee was brought by her mother; the next, and the next, by the under jailers; and Angiola continued grievously ill.

1883, Silvio Pellico, chapter 32, in My Ten Years' Imprisonment:

The jailer was also roused by the earthquake and came to the outer door; he was perhaps a soldier, or at least had something of Roman discipline, giving him presence of mind.

2001, Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, St. Paul: The Traveler and Roman Citizen, page 176:

One who enforces confinement in a jail or prison.


ladder

en-verb

ladder (third-person singular simple present ladders, present participle laddering, simple past and past participle laddered)

ladders (present singular third-person)
laddering (participle present)
laddered (participle past)
laddered (past)

From Middle English ladder, laddre, from Old English hlǣder, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaidriju, from Proto-Germanic *hlaidrijō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlóydʰrom, from *ḱley- (“to lean”).
Compare Scots ledder, North Frisian ladder, Saterland Frisian Laadere, West Frisian ljedder, Dutch ladder, leer, German Leiter); also Old Irish clithar (“hedge”), Umbrian 𐌊𐌋𐌄𐌈𐌓𐌀𐌌 (kleθram, “stretcher”)). See lean, which is related to lid.

offences to be taken into consideration
offence to be taken into consideration

(UK, law enforcement, of a police officer) To corruptly coerce a convicted offender to admit to offences to be taken into consideration which they do not actually believe they committed, as a way to artificially increase the rate of solved crimes.


raid

From Scots raid, from Northern Middle English rade, from Old English rād (“a riding, an expedition on horseback, road”), whence also the inherited English road (“way, street”). The earlier senses of “a riding, expedition, raid” fell into disuse in Early Modern English, but were revived in the northern form raid by Walter Scott in the early 19th century. The use for a swift police operation appears in the later 19th century and may perhaps have been influenced by French razzia (similar in both original meaning and sound).

der

a police raid of a narcotics factory

a raid of contractors on the public treasury

For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force, which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year.

2004 April 15, “Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer”, in The Scotsman:

(law enforcement) An attack or invasion for the purpose of making arrests, seizing property, or plundering.

غَارَة

attack for the purpose of making arrests, seizing property, or plundering


slayer

From Middle English slear, sleere, sleare, slaare, dissimilated from Old English slaga (“slayer”), equivalent to slay + -er.


commute

en-verb

commute (third-person singular simple present commutes, present participle commuting, simple past and past participle commuted)

commutes (present singular third-person)
commuting (participle present)
commuted (participle past)
commuted (past)

заменям

to put or substitute something else in place of

His prison sentence was commuted to probation.

1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “THE UTMOST THAT COULD BE OBTAINED WAS THAT HER SENTENCE SHOULD BE COMMUTED FROM BURNING TO BEHEADING.”, in Lady Trevelyan (Hannah More Macaulay), editor, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume V, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, →OCLC:

Ruslan Kutaev is evidence of this: not only was the elderly man sentenced to four years in prison (later commuted to two months), but he was tortured and his family threatened. This seems to be the price of viewing the world in other than Kadyrovite terms.

2018, Dominic Rubin, Russia's Muslim Heartlands: Islam in the Putin Era, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 207:

To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an aggregate; to cash in; to lessen

(transitive, law, criminology) To reduce the sentence previously given for a criminal offense.


corruption

en-noun

corruption (countable and uncountable, plural corruptions)

Borrowed from French corruption, from Latin corruptiō, equivalent to corrupt + -ion.

It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, […] to exite popular indignation against them.

1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:

They abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days.

1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:

But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.

2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:

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:

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity.

depravity

act of impairing integrity, virtue or moral principle


banger

→ Estonian: bänger

→ Finnish: bängeri

From bang + -er. The sausages were so called because of their excess water content and impervious skin, leading to the risk of explosion if not punctured before cooking.

Just as the gang peace movement desired to mainstream hardcore bangers into civic society, The Chronic wanted to drive hardcore rap into the popstream.

2011, Jeff Change, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, page 420:

(US, crime, slang) Clipping of gangbanger; a member of a gang.


police

police pl (normally plural, singular police)

Southern US, African-American Vernacular, South Asia

From Middle French police, from Latin polītīa (“state, government”), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía). Doublet of policy and polity.

The Cook County Sheriff's Department has jurisdiction across most of Chicago but focuses on the unincorporated area and tasks like prisoner transport, leaving the rest to the Chicago Police Department.

(law enforcement) A public agency charged with enforcing laws and maintaining public order, usually being granted special privileges to do so, particularly

(Canada, US and historical) A department of local (usually municipal) government responsible for general law enforcement.

Scotland Yard is, technically speaking, only the metropolitan police for Greater London but because of their importance they have special jurisdiction for some crimes across the United Kingdom.

(UK) A branch of the Home Office responsible for general law enforcement within a specific territory.

(Australia, New Zealand) Any of the formally enacted law enforcement agencies at various levels of government.

There are nine Principles of Police:
...
7 To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen, in the interests of community welfare and existence.

1943, Charles Reith, British Police and the Democratic Ideal, pp. 3–4

‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

In the criminal justice system, the People are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.

1990 Sept. 13, David Black & al., "Prescription for Death", Law & Order, 00:00:01

Citadel Security is a volunteer police service answering to the Citadel Council. The 200,000 constables of C-Sec are responsible for maintaining public order in the densely populated Citadel.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel Station: Citadel Security Services (C-Sec) Codex entry:

The rally on Sunday in Victoria Park, in the Causeway Bay district, was authorized in advance by the police. But protesters were also expected to begin marching later in the day from Sham Shui Po, a working-class neighborhood on the Kowloon peninsula, across the harbor from North Point. The police rejected their application for a permit.

2019 August 11, Mike Ives, “Hong Kong Protesters Gather Amid Fears of Mob Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-08-11:

Call the police!

There’s only one police in this town.

2012 July 16, Jonathan, Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises, spoken by Peter Foley (Matthew Modine), Warner Bros. Pictures:


ASBO

(British, law enforcement) Anti-Social Behaviour Order


ASBO

en-verb

ASBO (third-person singular simple present ASBOs, present participle ASBOing, simple past and past participle ASBOed)

ASBOs (present singular third-person)
ASBOing (participle present)
ASBOed (participle past)
ASBOed (past)

Yes he will probably end up in the criminal justice system in a few years time - but if we ASBO him now he's going to end up there an awful lot quicker because he will breach it.

2005, Andrew Millie, Anti-Social Behaviour Strategies: Finding a Balance, page 31:

"Shut up, both of you. I've got the police here. You'll get asboed," Sally shouted

2008, Harry James, Consequences?, page 65:

The redemptive storyline reminded me of the importance, in my own practice, of continuing to learn from the understanding of others' experiences and interactions in negotiating the new penal landscape of "ASBOing", portrayed so well in Rhodes' novel.

2008, Peter Squires, ASBO Nation: The Criminalisation of Nuisance, page 151:

(British, law enforcement, transitive) To issue an Anti-Social Behaviour Order to.


defalcation

en-noun

defalcation (countable and uncountable, plural defalcations)

[ˌdɛfəɫˈkeɪʃən]

Late 15th century, from Medieval Latin dēfalcātiōnem, accusative singular of dēfalcātiō (literally “cutting off, lopping off with a sickle”), nominalization of dēfalcō, from Latin dē (“off”) + falx (“sickle, scythe, pruning hook”), from which also English falcate (“sickle-shaped”).
By surface analysis, defalcate + -ion (“the act of”).

surf

Granting that Mr. Ireland had gone into his office at ten minutes to ten o'clock at night for the purpose of extracting £5000 worth of notes and gold from the bank safe, whilst giving the theft the appearance of a night burglary; […] why should he, at nine o'clock the following morning, fall in a dead faint and get cerebral congestion at sight of a defalcation he knew had occurred?

1909, Emma Orczy, chapter XIX, in The Old Man in the Corner:

“Why should Eldridge commit murder?[…]There was only one possible motive—namely, he wished to avoid detection as James Selby of Anaconda Ltd. He had settled down in Estrepps. There were several persons in the town who had suffered from his defalcations.[…]”

1931, Francis Beeding, “10/6”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps:


ripper

(computing) Software that extracts content from files or storage media.


outlaw

en-verb

outlaw (third-person singular simple present outlaws, present participle outlawing, simple past and past participle outlawed)

outlaws (present singular third-person)
outlawing (participle present)
outlawed (participle past)
outlawed (past)

From Middle English outlawe, outlagh, utlaȝe, from Old English ūtlaga (“outlaw”), borrowed from Old Norse útlagi (“outlaw, fugitive”), equivalent to out- + law. Cognate with Icelandic útlagi (“outlaw”).


fraud

fraud (third-person singular simple present frauds, present participle frauding, simple past and past participle frauded)

frauds (present singular third-person)
frauding (participle present)
frauded (participle past)
frauded (past)

From Middle English fraude (recorded since 1345), from Old French fraude, a borrowing from Latin fraus (“deceit, injury, offence”).


MGM

(film) Initialism of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a US movie studio.

(rail transport) The station code for the Metheringham railway station in England.


MGM

en-noun

MGM (countable and uncountable, plural MGMs)

Coordinate term: FGM

They brandished statistics of deaths from adult circumcision each year. They called it MGM, an acronym quickly acquiring the notoriety of FGM.

2019, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, “Love Made in Manchester”, in Manchester Happened, Oneworld Publications (2020), page 286:

male genital mutilation
male genital mutilation#English


assassinate

From assassin + -ate (noun-forming suffix)

Yet again, many of them deſperat hairebraines, raſh, careleſſe, fit to be Aſſaſinates, as being voide of all Feare and Sorrow […]

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes of the minde”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 3, member 1, subsection 2, page 164:


plunder

en-verb

plunder (third-person singular simple present plunders, present participle plundering, simple past and past participle plundered)

plunders (present singular third-person)
plundering (participle present)
plundered (participle past)
plundered (past)

Recorded since 1632 during the Thirty Years War, native British use since the Cromwellian Civil War. Borrowed from German plündern (“to loot”), from Middle High German, from Middle Low German plunderen, of obscure ultimate origin.
Cognate with Dutch plunderen, West Frisian plonderje, Saterland Frisian plunnerje. Probably denominal from a word for “household goods, clothes, bedding”; compare Middle Dutch plunder, German Plunder (“stuff”), Dutch and West Frisian plunje (“clothes”).

The mercenaries plundered the small town.

The shopkeeper was plundered of his possessions by the burglar.

Now Azaēlos, the king of Syria, made war on the Israelites and their king Jehu, and ravaged the eastern parts of the country across the Jordan […] spreading fire everywhere and plundering everything and inflicting violence on all who fell into his hands.

1937, Josephus, Ralph Marcus, transl., chapter VIII, in Josephus: With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library), volume VI (Jewish Antiquities), London: William Heinemann Ltd.; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, published 1958, →OCLC, book IX, paragraph 1, page 87:

(transitive) To pillage, take or destroy all the goods of, by force (as in war); to raid, sack.

سَلَبَ

to take all the goods of, by force (as in war) (transitive)


RIP

[…] recommended as punishment a 55-day RIP (reduction in pay) but was overruled by higher authorities […]

1972, New York Magazine, volume 5, number 5, page 32:

He admitted to his indiscretion and accepted a five-day RIP (reduction in pay). What the hell is going on? I wondered. We let a captain with possible O.C. connections off the hook, but we bust a patrolman for having a drink!

1991, Vincent Murano, William Hoffer, Cop Hunter, page 73:

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of reduction in pay.


constable

From Middle English constable, cunstable, constabil, connestable, cunestable, from Old French conestable, from Latin comes stabulī (“officer of the stables”). For the sense-development; compare marshal. Doublet of connétable.

der

(historical) An officer of a noble court in the Middle Ages, usually a senior army commander. (See also marshal).


NYPD

An NYPD officer struck in the arm by a bullet allegedly fired by a teen gunman ignored his wound and gave chase to the 16-year-old suspect, cops said Tuesday.

2023 January 17, Harry Parker, Rocco Parascandola, Thomas Tracy, “Wounded NYPD cop gave chase to Bronx teen accused of shooting him”, in New York Daily News:

Police Department
police department#English

Initialism of New York Police Department.


LAPD

(telecommunications) Link Access Procedures, D channel; specified in ITU-T Q.920 and ITU-T Q.921. The second layer protocol on the ISDN protocol stack.


policeman

→ French: policeman

→ Maori: pirihimana

→ Welsh: plismon

The policeman who arrests the "Red" does not understand the theories the "Red" is preaching; if he did, his own position as bodyguard of the monied class might seem less pleasant to him.

1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. I:

Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

Still agitated, she watched resentfully as two traffic policemen remounted their motorcycles.

2000, JG Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 378:

(law enforcement) A male police officer, sometimes used for any police officer regardless of gender.


policewoman

(law enforcement) A female police officer.


five-finger discount

en-noun

five-finger discount (plural five-finger discounts)

I was a burglary detective for three years before I joined the Speaker's Bureau, and you might say I managed to acquire a few things at a five-finger discount, if you catch my drift.

1986, James Ellroy, Killer on the Road, Avon Books, →ISBN, page 28:

- Hey, guys. Where'd you get all that great stuff?
- Five-finger discount, man.

1990, "The Telltale Head" (The Simpsons season 1 episode 8)

(slang, euphemistic) Theft or pilferage, typically of a small item; shoplifting.


rabbi

rabbi (plural rabbis or (archaic) rabbies)

rabbis (plural)
rabbies (archaic plural)

From Middle English raby, from Ecclesiastical Latin rabbi, and its source Koine Greek ῥαββί (rhabbí), from (post-Tanakh) Hebrew רַבִּי (rabbi, “my master”), from רַב (rav, “master [of]”) + ־י (-i, “me”). Compare late Old English rabbi. Doublet of rebbe.

suffix

Hoskins? He doesn't have a better rabbi in the department than that?

2006 September 17, David Mills, “Soft Eyes”, in The Wire, season 4, episode 2, spoken by Clarence Royce (Glynn Turman):

If I'm ever gonna make Captain, I need a good mentor. I need my rabbi.

2013 September 17, Dan Goor, Michael Schur, “Pilot”, in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero):

(law enforcement, slang) A senior officer who acts as a mentor.


graffito

[ɡɹəˈfiɾoʊ̯]

One officer got out to inspect the graffito.

1982 April 24, Bob Nelson, “NY Cops Harass Activist Writing Graffiti”, in Gay Community News, page 3:

(rare) A single instance of graffiti in the art/vandalism sense.


hijack

Possibly from a blend of highway + jacker (“one who holds up”) (1915).

blend

An instance of hijacking; the illegal seizure of a vehicle; a hijacking.


blackmail

Anglo-Scottish border
Scottish Highlands
blackmail
border reivers

From black + mail (“a piece of money”). Compare Middle English blak rente (“a type of blackmail levied by Irish chieftains”).
The word is variously derived from the tribute paid by English and Scottish border dwellers to border reivers in return for immunity from raids and other harassment. This tribute was paid in goods or labour, in Latin reditus nigri (“black mail”); the opposite is blanche firmes or reditus albi (“white rent”), denoting payment by silver.
McKay derives it from two Scottish Gaelic words blàthaich, pronounced (the th silent) bl-aich, "to protect" and màl (“tribute, payment”). He notes that the practice was common in the Scottish Highlands as well as the Borders.
More likely, from black + Middle English mal, male, maile (“a payment, rent, tribute”), from Old English māl (“speech, contract, agreement, lawsuit, terms, bargaining”), from Old Norse mál (“agreement, speech, lawsuit”); related to Old English mæðel (“meeting, council”), mæl (“speech”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌸𐌻 (maþl, “meeting place”), from Proto-Germanic *maþlą (“gathering, agreement”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to give advice, measure”). From the practice of freebooting clan chieftains who ran protection rackets against Scottish farmers. Black from the evil of the practice.
Expanded c. 1826 to any type of extortion money. Compare silver mail (“rent paid in money”) (1590s); buttock mail (“fine imposed for fornication”) (1530s, Scottish).

der

(archaic) A form of protection money (or corn, cattle, etc.) anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to the allies of robbers in order to be spared from pillage.


Pseudo-acronym of canine, by phonetic similarity of the letter and number names with the two syllables of canine.

Police working dogs (K9s) often have extremely close bonds with their handlers.

2003, Nicholas H. Dodman, If Only They Could Speak: Stories About Pets and Their People, page 248:

Originally a K9 dog for the police department, Captain was asked to resign for unknown reasons.

2003, Trevor J. Orsinger, The Firefighter's Best Friend: Lives and Legends of Chicago Firehouse Dogs, page 90:

Apollo, part of the New York Police Department K9 Search and Rescue team was on the scene of the disaster just 15 minutes after the disaster

2005, Priya Kapoor, Nandita Jaishankar, VIPs: Very Important Pets, page 71:

The Saitama Prefectural Police Department, for example, had no K9 units of its own, and relied on contract dogs exclusively.

2006, Asa Nonami, Juliet Winters Carpenter, The Hunter: A Detective Takako Otomichi Mystery, page 134:


inspector

→ Japanese: インスペクター (insupekutā)

Borrowed from Latin īnspector, from īnspiciō.

(law enforcement) A police officer ranking below superintendent.


fence

en-noun

fence (countable and uncountable, plural fences)

→ Pennsylvania German: Fens

From Middle English fence, fens, short for defence, defens (“the act of defending”), from Old French defens, defense (see defence).
The sense "enclosure" arises in the mid 15th century.
Also from the 15th century is use as a verb in the sense "to enclose with a fence". The generalized sense "to defend, screen, protect" arises ca. 1500. The sense "to fight with swords (rapiers)" is from the 1590s (Shakespeare).
Displaced native Old English heġe (compare Modern English hedge).

the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

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

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

The Finn was a fence, a trafficker in stolen goods, primarily in software. In the course of this business, he sometimes came into contact with other fences, some of whom dealt in the more traditional articles of the trade.

1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 73:

(informal) Someone who hides or buys and sells stolen goods, a criminal middleman for transactions of stolen goods.

perista

someone who hides or buys and sells stolen goods

(slang) A person who purchases and sells stolen goods or property.


fence

en-verb

fence (third-person singular simple present fences, present participle fencing, simple past and past participle fenced)

fences (present singular third-person)
fencing (participle present)
fenced (participle past)
fenced (past)

(transitive) To engage in the selling or buying of stolen goods.


CCG

(Canada, nautical, law enforcement) Initialism of Canadian Coast Guard.


tango

From translingual Tango (representing the letter T), from English tango (see above).

Tango down!

The two tangoes running toward the carnage at the prison door dropped simultaneously, dead in their tracks.

2005, Charles W. Sasser, Detachment Delta: Operation Aces Wild, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 370:

The sharp crack of breaking glass preceded Emily's calm voice. "One tango dead and Marcus is down, John."

2017, Beth Rhodes, Strike Zone, →ISBN, page 210:

(US, law enforcement, military slang) A target; an enemy.


terminator

[ˈtɜː.mɪ.næɪ.ɾə]

* Partly from post-classical Latin terminator (5th century), from Latin terminō; partly from terminate + -or.
* (android that kills humans): After the 1984 film The Terminator.

Someone who terminates or ends something, especially (in later use) an assassin or exterminator.

(computing) A text character or string that serves to mark the end of a document or transmission.

(biochemistry) A DNA sequence that causes RNA transcription to cease and an mRNA transcript to break off.

(electronics) An electrical device that absorbs reflection at the end of a transmission line.

Opposite of natural monsters there are technological monsters such as terminators, cyborgs, and robocops—all of which undermine dichotomies between the artificial and the organic, the prosthetic and the natural.

2010, Tyson E. Lewis, Richard Kahn, Education Out of Bounds, page 1:

(science fiction) An intelligent android created to destroy humans.


deicide

en-noun

deicide (countable and uncountable, plural deicides)

(Christianity, theology) The crucifixion of Jesus, viewed as a crime.


slammer

A man being sentenced for starving some horses chose 24 hours in the slammer with no food rather than seven days with the regular amenities.

1971 June 7, “Better Than Prison”, in Time:

(slang, usually "the slammer") Jail, prison.

I was in Britain, wanting to take a train to Portsmouth, and I only needed a one-way ticket. I did love the English trains; we still had slammers then. A slammer is a train where you got to slam the door shut yourself.

2009, Claude Lambert, On Pets and Men, page 33:

A fraudster who carries out slamming (fraudulent changes to a customer's service).


secret police

1979, Jello Biafra & John Greenway, "California Über Alles", Dead Kennedys, California Über Alles.
Now it is nineteen eighty-four / Knock-knock at your front door / It's the suede denim secret police / They have come for your uncool niece

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

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

A police force operating in secrecy and outside the normal boundaries of law and hidden from the public, usually in support of a totalitarian government's political policies to suppress political dissent through the use of methods including intimidation, violence, and surveillance.

geheime polisie

police operating outside normal boundaries of law


MDC

Metropolitan Detention Center
w:Metropolitan Detention Center

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of Metropolitan Detention Center.


perjury

perjury (countable and uncountable, plural perjuries)

/ˈpɜː(ɹ)d͡ʒəɹi/

From Anglo-Norman perjurie, from Latin perjurare (“swear falsely”), from per- + jūrāre. Displaced native Old English mānāþ (literally “false oath”).

ncog

We declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

(law) The deliberate giving of false or misleading testimony under oath.


shank

From Middle English schanke, from Old English sċanca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skankō, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, Low German Schanke, German Schenkel (“shank, leg”), Danish skank, Norwegian skank, Swedish skänkel), from *skankaz (compare Old Norse skakkr (“wry, crooked”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (compare Middle Irish scingim (“I spring”), Ancient Greek σκάζω (skázō, “to limp”).

The metal part on a curb bit that falls below the mouthpiece, which length controls the severity of the leverage action of the bit, and to which the reins of the bridle are attached.

The end or remainder, particularly of a period of time.

the shank of the morning

AMANDA: Going now? You're joking! Why, it's only the shank of the evening, Mr. O’Connor!

1945, Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie, page 92:

The main part or beginning of a period of time.


assassination

The assassination of the king occurred at night.

Liu's agents pursued him and he escaped assassination only by throwing his clothing away by the Chʻien-tʻang River near Hangchow, thus suggesting suicide.

1963, “Introduction”, in Wing-tsit Chan, transl., Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yang-ming, Columbia University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page xxiv:

The murder of a person, especially for political reasons or for personal gain.


nominal

→ Afrikaans: nominaal

PIE word
 *h₁nómn̥
From the Middle English nominalle (“of nouns”), borrowed from Latin nōminālis (“of names”), from nōmen (“name”).

a nominal difference

1856 February, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Oliver Goldsmith, republished in 1865, The Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green, page 300,
At Edinburgh he passed eighteen months in nominal attendance on lectures, and picked up some superficial information about chemistry and natural history.

In contrast to the traditionally conservative or libertarian ethos of the entrepreneurial class, the oligarchy is increasingly allied with the nominally populist Democratic Party and its regulatory agenda.

2013 October 5, Joel Kotkin, “California’s New Feudalism Benefits a Few at the Expense of the Multitude”, in The Daily Beast:


nominal

Numeric codes of characters used in programming are nominals.

A number (usually natural) used like a name; a numeric code or identifier. (See nominal number on Wikipedia.)

(UK, police jargon) A person listed in the Police National Computer database as having been convicted, cautioned or recently arrested.


uniform

Borrowed from Middle French uniforme, from Latin uniformis.

Skeletor held the gun against Speedo’s head, held Speedo between himself and the cops who stood, motionless and futile, where they’d stopped. Robinson, Lindfors, Carter, three uniforms and I watched helpless as Skeletor, dragging Speedy with him, inched out the gate, started backing down the hill.

1996, S. J. Rozan, Concourse, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 265:

Four men flew out of it, three uniforms and one in what appeared to be an English riding outfit—boots, whip, the whole nine yards. […] He called out, “I’m the superintendent of police.”

2001, Christine Wiltz, The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld, Da Capo Press, →ISBN, page 113:

Eyes to the front now and there was the body, a lump of black and brown. Moon counted three uniforms and a photographer, the medical examiner and his assistant.

2004, Will Christopher Baer, Penny Dreadful, MacAdam/Cage Publishing, →ISBN, page 81:

(law enforcement) A uniformed police officer (as opposed to a detective).


forge

en-verb

forge (third-person singular simple present forges, present participle forging, simple past and past participle forged)

forges (present singular third-person)
forging (participle present)
forged (participle past)
forged (past)

From Middle English forgen, from Anglo-Norman forger and Old French forgier, from Latin fabrico (“to frame, construct, build”).

der

He had to forge his ex-wife's signature.  The jury learned the documents had been forged.

To create a forgery of; to make a counterfeit item of; to copy or imitate unlawfully.


gangbanger

(vulgar, sex) Someone who takes part in a gangbang.