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peterman

American

[pee-ter-muhn] / ˈpi tər mən /

noun

Slang.

a safecracker.

peterman British

/ ˈpiːtəmən /

noun

slang a burglar skilled in safe-breaking

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

petermen

plural

Etymology

Origin of peterman

1805–15; peter a safe or cash box, originally a portmanteau or trunk, as an object to be stolen or rifled (of obscure origin) + -man

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

peterman

As a peterman he was a loud ha-ha; as a damper-getter he was just an amateur; as a heel or a houseman, well, them things were just outside him.

From Black Jack by Max Brand

I knew about it—got it from a peterman who has studied safes and all that sort of thing.

From The Ear in the Wall by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve

And the dobbel peterman flowed into their stomachs as if it had been a cataract falling down from some lofty mountain.

From The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders and elsewhere by Charles de Coster

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023