light-fingered
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From light (“not heavy”, adjective) + fingered (“having fingers”, adjective).
Pronunciation[edit]
- enPR: lītʹfĭng'gərd
Adjective[edit]
light-fingered (comparative lighter-fingered or more light-fingered, superlative lightest-fingered or most light-fingered)
- Having quick, light and nimble fingers.
- (figuratively) Having nimble fingers, especially for stealing or picking pockets (pickpocketing), given to thievery or shoplifting.
- 1848 June 28, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Before the Curtain”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], →OCLC, page vii:
- There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing and fiddling; […] yokels looking up at the tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while the light-fingered folk are operating upon their pockets behind.
Derived terms[edit]
- light-fingeredness (noun)
Translations[edit]
having quick, light and nimble fingers
|
given to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
|
Verb[edit]
light-fingered
- simple past and past participle of light-finger