What it means
A nark is a snitch, the sort who grasses you up to a teacher, bouncer, boss, landlord, whoever's got a bit of power. As a verb, to nark on someone means to dob them in. It can also mean to annoy or get on someone's nerves, usually in a moany old-school way. Still around in British and Australian chat, even if it sounds a bit dated.
Usage examples
"Had a quick pre-drinks and the landlord was banging on the door ten minutes later. Someone’s narked on us. Proper grass behaviour, it’s doing my head in."
"Don't say anything in front of him, he's a proper nark, last time he grassed us to the supervisor over a five minute break."
"That alarm two doors down has been narking me all night, it goes off, stops, then starts again just as I drift off."
"Oi, don't tell Dan about the spare wristbands, he'll nark to security the second he thinks he's not getting one."
"This group chat's been narking me all morning, just bleep bleep bleep while I'm trying to kip."
Where it comes from
In the informer sense, nark is old British slang and is usually traced to Romani nak, meaning nose. That fits the idea of someone sticking their nose in and running their mouth to authority. The annoyed sense showed up later, from things getting on your nerves and right up your nose.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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