lurkman

plural lurkmen

1. AustraliaarchaicA conman.

   I saw a group of four big lurkmen—I've noticed them in the background at Randwick or Rosehill when Bill was in for the kill on some racer.

   1960, Sutton Woodfield, A for Artemis: A Burlesque of Big-city Intrigue, page 152

   3 more examples

   Elwood seems at first a typical army scrounger and lurkman with his latest model Mercedes and every creature comfort but he is a ruthless and greedy drug pedlar.

   1993, The Bulletin - Volume 115, page 87

   The compulsion to take the work or lose the dole left many families with barely any option at all, and sending the men up country created special losses and problems. An unemployed 'lurkman' Jim Sharrock, commented about his call-up: 'I lost over relief work. I'd been getting ten bob a week nit-keeping for the SP bloke.'

   2006, David J. Potts, The Myth of the Great Depression, page 220

   It was like that all day: jockeys, trainers, and assorted silvertails all said hello, as did lurkmen and urgers, bookie's runners, and loiterers.

   2011, Peter Doyle, The Devil's Jump, page 166