Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A tramp burglar and safe-breaker.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun cant, slang a person who breaks open safes, a burglar : a yegg.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

yegg +‎ man

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Examples

  • He was determined now that the fellow should have a lesson indeed; so while he held him at arm's length with one hand, he pummeled him with the other until his face was a mass of bruises; and then, when the yeggman was in a condition bordering upon insensibility, Nick raised him bodily from his feet, and holding him in his arms, ran with him down along the path toward the water.

    A Woman at Bay Or, a Fiend in Skirts Nicholas Carter

  • Before the yeggman could make reply the girl spoke up quickly.

    The Oakdale Affair 1918

  • I always wanted to be a brakie, and then a yeggman.

    Free Air Sinclair Lewis 1918

  • They were not very easily converted into cash by any of them and as they all believed I was really a yeggman they finally let me into their secrets. ''

    The Go Ahead Boys and the Racing Motor-Boat 1916

  • Soapy, among other accomplishments, was a yeggman renowned in the profession, and very soon the heavy door swung softly back, and Soapy became lost in study.

    The Definite Object A Romance of New York Jeffery Farnol 1915

  • Before the yeggman could make reply the girl spoke up quickly.

    The Oakdale Affair Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912

  • He had scarcely got as far as describing the work of the suspected hired yeggman, when

    The Poisoned Pen 1908

  • She must have put them somewhere before she got the yeggman to break the safe.

    The Poisoned Pen 1908

  • From the comparatively quiet life of a not markedly industrious yeggman Brown came out of the upper floor of a State

    Marching Men Sherwood Anderson 1908

  • He must have been above the average, but everything points to the work of a yeggman.

    The Poisoned Pen 1908

Comments

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  • (Slang) (n): formerly used to refer to a criminal or vagrant, but especially a burglar. Also yegg.

    January 11, 2009

  • coo coo cajoob

    April 12, 2011

  • There once was a fellow named Stegman

    Who worked as a butter and egg man,

    But having grown chary

    Of chickens and dairy

    Embarked on a life as a yeggman.

    July 28, 2018