English

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Noun

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thief-taker (plural thief-takers)

  1. (now chiefly historical) Someone whose job it is to find and capture thieves.
    • 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 63:
      In the later 1690s Rewse became a successful thief-taker, reaping large rewards for the capture of Jacobite conspirators, clippers, and coiners.