as in thief
a person who steals money and other things from people's pockets and purses
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Recent Examples of pickpocket
By then, the studio heads had backed off the draconian pay cuts, but a new pickpocket had arrived from Washington: a Code for the Motion Picture Industry put forward under the authority of the National Recovery Act, the enabling legislation for FDR’s New Deal.
—
Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 28 Feb. 2026
And when the 25,000 Social Security checks worth $8 million are delivered each month, police say 80 pickpockets arrive to prey on the elderly.
—Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 27 Feb. 2026
There’s no bigger thief in Central Texas than college basketball’s greatest pickpocket.
—Kirk Bohls, Houston Chronicle, 6 Feb. 2026
Keep a closer eye on your keys and wallet—a one-strap bag is a pickpocket’s dream.
—Daisy Maldonado, InStyle, 19 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for pickpocket
Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 28 Feb. 2026
And when the 25,000 Social Security checks worth $8 million are delivered each month, police say 80 pickpockets arrive to prey on the elderly.
—Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 27 Feb. 2026
There’s no bigger thief in Central Texas than college basketball’s greatest pickpocket.
—Kirk Bohls, Houston Chronicle, 6 Feb. 2026
Keep a closer eye on your keys and wallet—a one-strap bag is a pickpocket’s dream.
—Daisy Maldonado, InStyle, 19 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for pickpocket
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pickpocket
Noun
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Detectives learned Lugo was the leader of a group made up of drifters and petty thieves who hung out at the Sun Gym.—
Troy Roberts,
CBS News,
8 Apr. 2026
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Carla says her parents had no idea who might be behind the robberies and were surprised the thieves had ignored the millions of dollars’ worth of paintings.—
Jennifer Cannon,
Vanity Fair,
7 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Domingo nails it as the cutting teacher who has choice words about the robber’s style choices while his students offer their own insults.—
Omar L. Gallaga,
Los Angeles Times,
12 Apr. 2026
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His role as Robbie Prendergrast, a Philadelphia area garbage collector turned trap house robber who is hunted by the FBI, has already earned him a Critics Choice Award nomination, following Critics Choice and Emmy noms for his work in Netflix’s Ozark.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The New York Times later reported that Bankman-Fried was placed in solitary confinement because the crypto swindler violated the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ rules.—
Andrew Zucker,
HollywoodReporter,
13 Feb. 2026
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But the fake ads include the swindler’s contact information instead of the real landlord’s.—
Lew Sichelman,
Miami Herald,
23 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The characters were based on a real family of bookmakers and racketeers who once lived in England.—
Sarah Moore,
Freep.com,
5 Mar. 2026
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In September 2023, the group was charged with violation of the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act, commonly known as a RICO case.—
Irene Wright,
USA Today,
3 Feb. 2026
Noun
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That’s before Morgan steals a necklace from a chintzy gift shop run by a Turkish gangster named Yusuf, who proceeds to kidnap the pair, intimidate them at gunpoint, and threaten their family, forcing them to perform an array of odd jobs to make up for the petty theft.—
Inkoo Kang,
New Yorker,
9 Apr. 2026
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Longtime collaborators Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro reunited for this 2019 gangster epic, about the real-life hitman Frank Sheeran and his experiences working for the Mafia.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The first pictures McCullin took were of hoodlums and down-and-outs, subjects that reflected his own hardscrabble background.—
Andrew Pulver,
Air Mail,
31 Jan. 2026
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But as Duterte’s father, Vicente, had increasingly gravitated toward Malacañang, his son hung out with the family bodyguards—and crafted the persona of a rough-talking bugoy, or hoodlum, in his native Bisayan tongue.—
Sean Williams,
Harpers Magazine,
27 Jan. 2026
Noun
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In fact, the GTW ruffians have to give the Big Honey some props for his relative restraint in the heat of the moment.—
Sean Keeler,
Denver Post,
28 Feb. 2026
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Ciri, unbeknowest to her surrogate ma and pa, is free of her Nilfgaardian captors and on the run with a band of adolescent ruffians, and perhaps figuring out how to take care of herself.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA Today,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The thugs would insinuate themselves into the confidence of wayfarers and, when a favorable opportunity presented itself, strangle them by throwing a handkerchief or noose around their necks.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
31 Mar. 2026
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No government masked thugs shooting down our neighbors in the streets.—
Diego Parrado,
Vanity Fair,
29 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Pickpocket.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pickpocket. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026.
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