Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A pickpocket.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who cuts purses for the sake of stealing their contents (a practice said to have been common when men wore purses at their girdles); hence, a pickpocket.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who cuts purses for the sake of stealing them or their contents (an act common when men wore purses fastened by a string to their girdles); one who steals from the person; a pickpocket.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a thief who steals from the pockets or purses of others in public places
Etymologies
- From cut + purse. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The meaning of the term cutpurse was a lot clearer.”
“I was not long ago in England, and witnessed there the hanging of one Elizabeth Evans–Canberry Bess, they called her–a notorious murderer and cutpurse, who was taken with her partner, one Thomas Shearwood.”
Simon & Schuster: On The Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier
“Thirteen-year-old Alan Dale, only son of a poor widow, scrapes a meagre living as a thief and cutpurse in and around the busy town of Nottingham.”
“You, whose conscience is too delicate to continue as a cutpurse, threaten to turn assassin?”
“In which the two brothers cooperate, Gideon resumes his career as a cutpurse, and Tempest House plays host to some unexpected visitors”
“She imagined the explanatory notes: Tended by a maid and a reformed cutpurse, an aristocrat recovers from a dislocated shoulder inflicted on him by a time-traveling henchman.”
“You do not do justice to your reputation as a cutpurse.”
“A murderer and a villain, A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe of your precedent lord, a vice of kings, a cutpurse ... ”
“Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I remember him now; a bawd, a cutpurse.”
“Another man in tan appeared, his truncheon smacked the cutpurse across the temple, and the youth went to his knees.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cutpurse’.
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 213 more...
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Perponyms
List of words referent to persons who commit specific crimes, or are suspected of committing those crimes, beginning with arsonist and safecracker.
Check out reesetee's nice Bad Guys l...arsonist, safecracker, murderer, rapist, getaway man, jewel thief, accomplice, drug dealer, carjacker, gunrunner, industrial spy, human trafficker and 216 more...
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My Little Phonies
Names for the next generation of My Little Ponies. Inspired by Star's list.
juggernaught, flamboyant, cuddly maggot, astrobleme, agroof, windburn, poshlost, crucifer, feedbag, dunderwhelp, nebelwerfer, bliss ninny and 453 more...
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Killjoy et al
Namely, compounds consisting of a verb with a direct object immediately after it, without inflection
killjoy, lickspigot, quakebuttock, throttlebottom, scattergood, scapegrace, swillbowl, tosspot, breakfast, cutthroat, pickpocket, dreadnought and 84 more...
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First I Look at the Purse
purse, Purse, purses, pursed, First I Look at t..., purse money, purse-crew, purse-gang, purser, pursers, coin purse, purse-seine and 39 more...
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135 Offensive Shakespearean Terms
135 Offensive Shakespearean Terms =)
artless, baggage, barnacle, bawdy, beef-witted, bladder, boil-brained, bootless, brazen, cankerblossom, churlish, churrish and 123 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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A Swell Mob
Kinds of thieves.
thief, sneak thief, burglar, cat burglar, picklock, puggard, robber, grave robber, piller, porch climber, prowler, larcenist and 133 more...
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Oh them words, them words
My fancies, my cudgels.
liquescent, ferly, lamia, basilisk, trigon, fantast, stirp, tristesse, enfleurage, stemma, formicary, lacrimation and 346 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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Slings and Arrows: Shakespearean Insults
artless, baudy, beslubbering, bootless, churlish, cockered, clouted, craven, dankish, dissembling, droning, errant and 116 more...
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I love you for your sound
loquacious, bumble, klaxon, rhythmicity, lexicon, ghastly, liquidation, labradorescence, springtide, foist, Herculean, cankerblossom and 77 more...
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Ye Olde Shouting Match
From a list of insulting words that you might encounter in a Middle English shouting match.
The list was given to me by my English teacher.bawdy, bunch-backed, canker-blossom, brazen, clay-brained, clotpole, churlish, dog-hearted, crutch, distempered, empty-hearted, cutpurse and 78 more...
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Bad Guys
For more badness, see hernesheir's excellent Perponyms.
rascal, scoundrel, blackguard, mountebank, rapscallion, scamp, miscreant, knave, scapegrace, rogue, charlatan, hoodlum and 65 more...
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A Whiz Mob
Pickpocket lingo. Words culled from and inspired by this article. See also A Swell Mob and The Grifters.
pit, prat, skinning the poke, kissing the dog, whiz mob, wire mob, steer, mark, vic, chump, Mr. Bates, pappy and 54 more...
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