Fagin

[ fey-gin ]

noun

(in Dickens' Oliver Twist) a villainous old man who trains and uses young boys as thieves.
Also fagin. a person who teaches crime to others.

Words Nearby Fagin

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Fagin in a sentence

He looks like Fagin from Oliver Twist—wiry, with long, graying hair and a perfectly pointy beard.
Lily Allen As You've Never Seen Her | Lucie Greene | September 10, 2009 | THE DAILY BEAST
It must come some time or another; and why not in the winter time when you dont want to go out a-walking so much; eh, Fagin?
Oliver Twist, Vol. II (of 3) | Charles Dickens
Fagin nodded in the affirmative, and pointing in the direction of Saffron Hill, inquired whether any one was up yonder to-night.
Oliver Twist, Vol. II (of 3) | Charles Dickens
She was in her room, the woman said; so Fagin crept softly up stairs, and entered it without any previous ceremony.
Oliver Twist, Vol. II (of 3) | Charles Dickens
It would easily have made him beautiful if he had been merely squalid; if he had been a Jew of the Fagin type.
The Ball and The Cross | G.K. Chesterton

Never told the old parson where they were; never peached upon old Fagin.
Oliver Twist, Vol. I (of 3) | Charles Dickens

Cultural definitions for Fagin

Fagin

[ (fay-gin) ]

A villain in the novel Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens. The unscrupulous, miserly Fagin teaches Oliver Twist and other orphaned boys to pick pockets and steal for him.

Browse