Rustlers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Persons who unlawfully steal livestock, especially cattle, from farmers or ranchers
2. Individuals who engage in the covert theft of farm animals, primarily focusing on cattle
3. People who secretly take farm animals, typically cattle, without permission

Etymology: "Rustlers" is the plural of "rustler," which in the American West of the 1870s came to mean a thief who drove off cattle, probably from the verb "rustle," meaning to move briskly or to bustle about. The verb's older sense is the sound of dry leaves or silk, an imitative word first recorded in the 1500s. The cattle-theft sense of "rustle" seems to have emerged on the frontier, though the exact path from energetic movement to stealing livestock is not firmly documented.

Synonyms: thieves, bandits, outlaws, robbers, crooks