Cutpurse
//ˈkʌtˌpɝs// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A thief who steals from others' purses or pockets in public.
"A cutpurse of the empire and the rule"
- 2 a thief who steals from the pockets or purses of others in public places wordnet
Example
More examples"A cutpurse of the empire and the rule"
Etymology
From Middle English cutte-purs; equivalent to cut + purse: originally, purses were worn by a strap at the girdle, which the thief would cut.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.