a1325 Names of Hare in T. Wright & J. O. Halliwell Reliquiæ Antiquæ (1845) I. 133 The wilde der, the lepere, The shorte der, the lerkere.

1399 W. Langland Richard Redeles iii. 57 But as sone as þey [the young birds]..steppe kunne, Þan cometh and crieth her owen kynde dame, and they ffolwith þe vois,..and leueth þe lurker þat hem er ladde.

a1400–50 Alexander 3543 Þou litill thefe, þou losangere, þou lurkare in cities.

a1500 R. Henryson tr. Æsop Fables: Trial of Fox l. 1075 in Poems (1981) 44 ‘For Goddis lufe, my lord, gif me the law Off this lurker!’ With that Lowrence let draw.

1519 W. Horman Vulgaria viii. f. 89^v He is a starter a syde or a lurkar [L. emansor].

1620 Bp. J. Hall Honor Married Clergie i. xxiiii. 129 If this lawlesse Lurker had euer had any taste of the Ciuill or Canon Law, hee might haue beene able to construe that Maxime.

1641 J. Milton Reason Church-govt. 20 It was well knowne what a bold lurker schisme was even in the houshold of Christ.

1702 C. Mather Magnalia Christi vii. App. 89/1 Two Men at Exeter were kill'd by some of the same Dangerous Lurkers.

1821 W. Scott Kenilworth III. iv. 51 In hopes to find that the lurker had disappeared.

1870 W. Morris Earthly Paradise: Pt. III 498 Then did the lurkers from the gully bound.

1841 Exposure of Impositions practised by Vagrants 4 Lurkers are persons who go about with briefs, containing false statements of losses by fire, shipwrecks, accidents, &c.

1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 219/2 Armed with these [sc. sham official documents], the patterer becomes a ‘lurker’,—that is, an impostor.

1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 363/1 A lurker being strictly one who loiters about for some dishonest purpose.

1925 H. Leverage Dict. Underworld in Flynn's 21 Feb. 869/2 Lurker, a swindler.

1973 G. Butler Coffin for Pandora i. 27 I knew the lingo. A macer was a cheat or a sharper and a lurker was a man with a story of hard luck to tell.

c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 317/2 Lurcare.., lurco.

1984 Sci. Amer. Sept. 83/2 (advt.) That'll fool the ‘lurkers’, those CB ‘see it alls’ who get their kicks by watching.

1991 M. Heim in M. Benedikt Cyberspace (1993) 76 People do not just observe one another, they become ‘lurkers’.

1992 N.Y. Times 1 Dec. c14/6 [He] estimates that there are five or six lurkers for each poster on a bulletin board.

1994 Guardian 7 July (OnLine section) 6/1 You can see everyone who's logged on and providing a TV signal. You don't need a TV card or camera, you'll just be a ‘lurker’.

1998 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 21 Dec. d6/5 Long-time lurkers who decide to join the conversation are said to be ‘delurking’.

1825 Encycl. Londinensis XX. 435/1 [In pilchard fishing] the third boat is called the lurker, and carries three or four men.

1880 M. A. Courtney W. Cornwall Words in M. A. Courtney & T. Q. Couch Gloss. Words Cornwall 36/1 Lurker, a boat in which the master seiner sits to give instructions.

1902 Longman's Mag. Aug. 349 The lurkers were lifted over mud and shingle, the crews sprang, tumbled, or were pushed on board.