as in thieves
a person who steals money and other things from people's pockets and purses
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Recent Examples of pickpockets
There are also luggage straps, zipper clips, and anti-theft travel bags with thoughtful features that help deter pickpockets without sacrificing style.
—
Chaise Sanders,
Travel + Leisure,
26 June 2026
Arteta has been known to enlist everything from pickpockets to a naked flame to help convey his ideas to his players.
—
James McNicholas,
New York Times,
19 May 2026
Chaise Sanders,
Travel + Leisure,
26 June 2026
Arteta has been known to enlist everything from pickpockets to a naked flame to help convey his ideas to his players.
—
James McNicholas,
New York Times,
19 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pickpockets
Noun
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An employee said the thieves stole the cash register and several tobacco products.
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Lightweight, yet durable, this small bag features RFID-blocking technology to prevent thieves from accessing your credit card numbers and personal details with a quick skim (scan) of your bag on a busy street or crowded bus.
Noun
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It’s suspected this was a security measure, meant to confound robbers.
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Created by Brad Ingelsby, the first season of Task found Ruffalo’s Brandis forming a task force to track down a crew of masked robbers, led by a working-class family man, that were carrying out a series of violent crimes in the Philadelphia area.
Noun
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The decade ended tumultuously, with the Osmond family’s fortune drained by a series of swindlers and grifters.
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This scam, according to Kent, could be proliferated with the use of AI, which can allow swindlers to enroll in many different college programs at once.
Noun
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The characters were based on a real family of bookmakers and racketeers who once lived in England.
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When Ferrara was starting out, private investment in low-budget films was spurred by tax loopholes, a way for doctors, dentists, and racketeers to get rid of extra cash that would otherwise wind up in Uncle Sam’s grubby mitts.
Noun
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In a recent Truth Social post, Trump blamed vandals for the troubles that have cropped up after the $16 million renovation of the pool.
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The president claimed vandals cut a 350-foot slit in the pool between the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.
Noun
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Neither immigrant family should be linked to violent gangsters, of course.
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One of the most innovative gangsters of the 20th century, Frank Lucas earned the title of Harlem drug kingpin in the late-‘60s and early-‘70s by importing high-quality heroin from Southeast Asia and selling it under the street name Blue Magic.
Noun
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In the past decade, the leadership of the Kinahan organization has become rich and cosmopolitan, and their life styles have started to resemble those of international businessmen more than of street hoodlums.
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The first pictures McCullin took were of hoodlums and down-and-outs, subjects that reflected his own hardscrabble background.
Noun
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The series has lent a cinematic gangster attraction to the Peaky Blinders, yet the term itself was not one gang — as depicted in the show — but a generic expression from the late 19th century for the ‘street ruffians’ of Birmingham, born out of the city’s ring of poverty.
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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.
Cite this Entry
“Pickpockets.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pickpockets. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
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