cut-purse

I have already got guides, for the light troops laid an ambuscade, and seized some of the cut-purse vagabonds who hung on our rear.

Anabasis 2007

"So ignorant", says Trevelyan, "was James of England and her laws that at Newark, he ordered a cut-purse caught in the act to be hanged without a trial at a word from his royal mouth."

From The Curate's Garden Laban 2005

"So ignorant", says Trevelyan, "was James of England and her laws that at Newark, he ordered a cut-purse caught in the act to be hanged without a trial at a word from his royal mouth."

Archive 2005-03-06 Laban 2005

I understand the business, I hear it: to have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for the other senses.

The Winter’s Tale 2004

She, too, was what they call a thief and a cut-purse; ay, and was transported for it, like my dear son; and do you think she would have told the world so, if there had been any harm in the thing?

Lavengro 2004

If he be a picker or a cut-purse, as there be very many, the second time he is taken, he hath a piece of his nose cut off, and is burned in the forehead, and kept in prison till hee finde sureties for his good behauiour.

The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation 2003

After the first preambles, he leads us into a noble solitude, a great house that seemed uninhabited; but from the end of the spacious hall moves towards us Avaro, with a suspicious aspect, as if he believed us thieves; and as for my part, I approached him as if I knew him a cut-purse.

The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899 George A. Aitken

He never mentions him without an expression of contempt, hardly acknowledges him as king; he is a thing -- of nothing -- a farcical monarch -- "a peacock" -- and, in this particular act, no dread usurper, but a "cut-purse of the realm."

The Contemporary Review, January 1883 Vol 43, No. 1 Various

_London_: and when he is there, he sticks fast upon every object, casts his eyes away upon gazing, and becomes the prey of every cut-purse.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 Various

Believe me, there is not a lackey in this realm -- no, not a cut-purse, nor any pander -- who would not in meeting you upon equal footing degrade himself.

Domnei A Comedy of Woman-Worship James Branch Cabell 1918