light-fingered
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
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given to stealing, pickpocketing, thievery, shoplifting
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Verb edit
light-fingered
- simple past and past participle of light-finger