mudlark vs scruffball

mudlark

noun
  • The Grallina cyanoleuca that builds its nest with mud into a bowl-like shape. 

  • A soldier of the Royal Engineers. 

  • Any of various birds that are found in muddy places or build their nests with mud, especially Anthus petrosus and Alauda arvensis. 

  • A child who plays in the mud; a child that spends most of its time in the streets, a street urchin. 

  • A racehorse that performs well on muddy or wet tracks. 

verb
  • To scavenge in river or harbor mud for items of value. 

scruffball

noun
  • Any scruffy creature. 

How often have the words mudlark and scruffball occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )