Light-fingered

adj, verb

adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of light-finger form-of, participle, past
Adjective
  1. 1
    Having quick, light and nimble fingers.
  2. 2
    Having nimble fingers, especially for stealing or picking pockets (pickpocketing), given to thievery or shoplifting. figuratively

    "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."

Adjective
  1. 1
    having nimble fingers literally or figuratively; especially for stealing or picking pockets wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
fraudulentfuraciousnimble-fingeredsticky-fingeredtheftuousthieving

Example

More examples

"Tom complained that a light-fingered pilferer who'd briefly brushed against him at the crowded train station had carried off his wallet."

Etymology

From light (“not heavy”, adjective) + fingered (“having fingers”, adjective).

Related phrases

light-fingeredness

More for "light-fingered"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.