STEAMING NOUN (PEOPLE AND SOCIETY)

In British teenagers' slang: the activity of passing rapidly in a gang through a public place, robbing bystanders by force of numbers. Etymology: Probably related to the Cockney slang phrase steam in 'to start or join a fight'; it has been claimed that the term came from US street slang, but there is little evidence to support this. History and Usage: The phenomenon of steaming first started to be reported in the newspapers in the UK in 1987-8, when there was a spate of incidents of this kind on trains and buses, and also at large public gatherings such as street carnivals. The verb steam (which is used intransitively or transitively) has been back-formed from the noun; a person who takes part in steaming is a steamer. Video tapes of the two-day carnival are being studied in an attempt to trace 'steamers', who ran en masse through the crowds, stealing at random. The Times 9 Sept. 1987, p. 7 Frightening for its victims, steaming is also proving to be a difficult crime to prevent, and very expensive, in both manpower and financial terms, to stamp out. Sunday Times 21 Feb. 1988, section A, p. 18