Fagin

[ fey-gin ]

noun
  1. (in Dickens' Oliver Twist) a villainous old man who trains and uses young boys as thieves.

  2. Also fagin. a person who teaches crime to others.

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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.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.