Pickpurses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who steals from others by stealthy hand movements in crowded places
2. An individual who engages in petty theft, particularly by lifting valuables from pockets or bags
3. Someone skilled in the art of theft, specifically by discreetly taking items without the owner's notice

Etymology: "Pickpurses" is simply the plural of "pickpurse," which is itself a compound of two plain English words: "pick," meaning to take or steal, and "purse," the small bag carried for money. The compound took shape in Middle English, the English of roughly the 12th to 15th centuries, where it appeared as "pikepurse" or "pykeporse." The sense of the first element is the one worth noticing. "Pick" here is the older verb meaning to remove something from a place with the fingers, the same root that gives us "pick a pocket." So the word describes its work literally: someone who picks purses. The plural simply applies that action to more than one person or more than one purse.

Synonyms: thieves, pickpockets